Peter’s readers had not been as privileged as Peter, who had been personally discipled by Jesus for three years. And yet their love for Christ was no less real. Love for Christ is not based on the normal reasons we love other people. The reasons we love Jesus have nothing to do with his personality, or looks, or charisma, or preaching style, or humor. We love him because of who he is and what he’s done for us.

In the 19th Century French chemist, Louis Pasteur, discovered that under our very noses exists a whole realm of life invisible to the naked eye. His research revealed that our bodies are coated in, and inhabited by, a bustling ecosystem of organisms called microbes.

Bill Bryson humorously warns: “There is no point trying to hide from your bacteria, for they are on you and around you always, in numbers you can’t conceive of. If you are in good health and averagely diligent about your hygiene, you will have a herd of about one trillion bacteria grazing on your fleshy plains– about one hundred thousand of them on every square centimetre of skin. … They are, in short, a big part of us. From the bacteria’s point of view, of course, we are a rather small part of them… This is their planet, and we are only on it because they allow us to be.”

What profit can come from such a skin-crawling reminder? Absolutely nothing.

But there is a reminder of things unseen that is very helpful to your spiritual life, which we find in 1 Peter 1:6-9 as the Apostle encourages Christians beset by tempestuous trials.

1. Saving Faith Loves the Unseen Savior

1 Peter 1:8 Though you have not seen him, you love him.

I have not seen Jesus, and neither have you. The Bible teaches that Jesus ascended into Heaven and will return in such a way that everyone will get to see him on the same day.

But does that mean we can’t love him?

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