Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love,

love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

So now for the first time we get a glimpse of what this new conduct might look like,

what holiness might look like, what the new passions, what

fruit the new passions of hope and joy are going to produce.

Love one another, earnestly from the heart.

Still hasn't said anything about the outsiders yet, that's coming.

Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed,

but of imperishable, sound familiar,

through the living and abiding word of God.

For all flesh is like grass, all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.

This word is the good news that was preached to you.

All of that right there is about being born again.

So now in verse three, these are the only two places.

Verse three, God according to His great mercy

caused you to be born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And now, verse 23, you have been born again, and now he's got a whole new complex of ideas. Not of

perishable seed but of imperishable. Namely, I think it's namely, through the living and abiding word.

Nothing was said like that in verse three.

God caused you to be born again through the resurrection

unto a living hope.

...