‘Finally, all of you, be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brothers and sisters, tender-hearted, humble-minded,'
Peter now addresses ‘all of you' and outlines their required manner of life. They are to be at unity among themselves, walking in agreement on essentials, filled with love and compassion, gentle and tender, and humble. None are to push themselves forward, or think a lot of themselves, but are rather to support each other, think a lot of each other, and treat each other with thoughtfulness and consideration. In the words of 1 Peter 1:22 they are to ‘love one another from a pure heart fervently'.
‘Like-minded' or ‘of one mind'. This does not mean just agreeing together. Terrorists are like-minded in that way. It means all having their minds set in the right direction, obedience to Jesus Christ, and seeking to serve as He served (Mark 10:43-45). We are to be like-minded with Him.
‘Compassionate.' That is sympathising with each other in our problems and our heartaches. Showing loving concern for one another.
‘Loving as brothers and sisters' is a reminder that we have all been begotten again by God into one family (1 Peter 1:3), and are to see each other as related, and are to maintain love one with another in peace and harmony, as in an ideal family.
‘Tender-hearted.' Tender-heartedness, having the heart of a true shepherd, has often been lacking in the church. Far too many prefer to act as lords over the flock, and to be harsh to people ‘for their own good'. But if we do not weep with compassion, then we should not be judging at all. For Christians should be uplifting each other, not pulling each other down.
‘Humble-minded.' It is one thing to be outwardly humble, quite another to be humble-minded. This involves genuinely seeing that in many things we may be wrong, and being willing to learn from others. It is seeing that it really does not matter what views we have, for example, on the second coming, because there is so much disagreement about the detail that we are all likely to be wrong. Rather we should be concentrating on the fact of it, and its implications for us and for the world today.