1. 1 Peter 3:8 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

How can Peter call for “brotherly love”?

1 Peter 3:8 (ESV)

8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

Because Peter’s readers had been “born again” (1 Peter 1:3, 1 Peter 1:23) they share a new “Father” (1 Peter 1:17) so that they are all brothers (and sisters). As a family under God (1 Peter 2:17) they clearly need to display “brotherly love” for each other. Such “brotherly love” evokes the “sympathy” needed to “have unity of mind.”