<p>1:23- see on Job 22:27,28; Lk. 8:11.</p><p><i>Having been begotten again</i>- AV &quot;Being born again&quot;. This second begetting was by the Spirit (Jn. 3:3-5). God has taken the initiative. But we must respond, allowing His movement, and living the life of conscious love, which is the singular fruit of the Spirit. We &quot;love one another from the heart fervently: having been begotten again&hellip;&quot;. Love of the brotherhood is in the end the result and guarantee of the new birth. We are asked not to receive God's grace in vain, nor do despite unto the spirit power of grace. These phrases surely suggest that the experience of grace is a compulsion to action, which we can resist but ought rather to allow to work in us to bring forth fruit. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God and our relation to it now ought to bring forth fruit in us (Mt. 21:43). It isn't just a set of true propositions.</p><p>The Greek tense of &quot;begotten again&quot; could imply an ongoing process; thus Peter in :3 speaks of how we have already been born again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Christ (a clear reference to baptism), and yet here goes on to say that having obeyed the truth, we must go on in being (continuous tense) born again by the work of God's word (1 Pet. 1:3,23). See on Col. 2:6; Gal. 3:27.</p><p><i>Not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and endures</i>- See on :25 <i>The word of the Lord</i>. I suggest the &quot;word&quot; here refers to the Lord Jesus. It is He who now &quot;lives and abides for ever&quot;.</p>