Above All... Love

1 Peter 4:8 ~ "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins."

The majestic height of the Christian life is the Christ-like virtue of sacrificial love. Many strive to climb the mountain and find that the summit is of such difficulty that they settle for the lower plateaus of spiritual fulfillment and acceptable moral standards. Neither of those are bad, and yet there is a pinnacle of virtue that exceeds them all--that is "above all." Are you willing to navigate the heights with the LORD Jesus, to love others as He loved you, or will you remain content upon the plains, fearful that to love as Jesus did means to leave all the world behind, deny yourself, and risk a real experience with Christ?

At this point, many Christians feel a strong sense of vertigo. They are dizzy just thinking about how life is meant to be a willful sacrifice, as Christ did for us. Jesus tells us this very thing in John 13:34, "​A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." Let me ask you this question: do you look to be loved, or do you look to love? A great many believers frown at others because they sense some calamity of love happening to them. The accusation, "they didn't love me like Jesus did" must be replaced by the urgent desire to respond with, "how can I love them like Jesus did." Paul puts it this way in Philippians 2:3, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves." 

So, in climbing this height of Christ-like love, we look to our text today and see that it is a perpetual love. We are to "keep loving one another." Let me ask you this: is there some measure or barrier wherein you will reject the opportunity to love another as Christ loved you? Is there some elevation too high--"this far and no farther" will you declare in your unwillingness to climb another step? But our text does not say to "stop" loving one another, but to "keep" loving one another. It literally means to "have a continual disposition of love" among yourselves. Consider what Romans 8:38-39 says, "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." In light of that, is there anything that can separate your love from your brothers and sisters in Christ? If there is, then you will not venture upon the heights with Christ.

With every step upon the narrow way to reach the summit, we find that we must have a passionate love. We are to "keep loving one another earnestly." This earnest love is more than just the lip-service kindness that is often found in the conversations of many Christian acquaintances. It is a love that is filled with a zealous fervency, a passionate desire for the betterment of the object of love. It is the love that should exist between a husband and a wife, or the love of a parent and child. It is truly the love that is found between our Savior and His redeemed. The barrier of our own sin was no match for the boundless love that He displayed when He gave up His life to save us. Romans 5:8 declares, "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Shall you see the fervent passion of the love of Christ? Then look no further than the mountain of suffering that Jesus climbed and the cross upon which He died. 

Finally, if we are to find our way to the very peak, the height above all others, then we will see that this love is a pardoning love. Our text concludes with this: "since love covers a multitude of sins." Too many unforgiven transgressions course through the hearts of God's people. Bitterness ensues and a growing animosity toward other believers begins to poison the well of love that is meant to flow out of every born-again life. Jesus declared that out of those who believe on Him, rivers of living water will flow (see John 7:38). But what flows out of your heart? Is it a life-giving stream of His truth and love? Is it the polluted waters of a poisoned well? Do you want to see the greatest example of this love that covers a multitude of sins? Then look again to the cross and hear the words of Jesus as they drove the nails into His hands and feet, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). True forgiveness puts you upon the heights with the LORD. Leave this off your walk with Christ and you will never make the ascent to the top of the mountain.

Beloved, let us walk with Jesus "above all." Not better than all or faster than all, but upon the heights with the LORD in the same love wherein He loved us.

In His Grace,
Pastor Michael
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