1. 1 Peter 1:22 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What does “earnestly” mean?

1 Peter 1:22 (ESV)

22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

The term Peter uses means eagerly, constantly, zealously, and so he instructs his readers to love one another all the time, in all circumstances, without limits. We get a sense of the term’s significance when Jesus prayed “more earnestly” even when his disciples fell asleep and the weight of God’s wrath pressed out of him bloody sweat in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44).