Sincere love
1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
A number of years ago The Beatles had a hit song entitled “All You Need is Love”. We’re not in the habit of basing our Christian faith on lyrics, but as we look at our Bible verse for this week, there is some truth in that title.
Our verse for this week is written in the context of the coming of the end of the world being near. There are several things which Christians are encouraged to do knowing that the end of the world could come at any time – “be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray” (1 Peter 4:7). Then we are encouraged to “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
First of all we need to understand that the love spoken of in this week’s Bible verse is much different than the “all you need is love” which the Beatles sang of. When Peter encourages us to “love each other deeply”, he is encouraging us to imitate the love which Jesus showed to us. Think for a moment of the love which Jesus has shown to you, to me and to all people. He loved us even when we didn’t love him. He not only forgave us all our sins, including all the times we had sinned again him, he died on the cross to pay for all those sins and guarantee us our forgiveness and the hope of heaven.
In the light of that we are then encouraged to “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”. Look at the words of the verse carefully. It doesn’t just say love people who love you when they are loving to you. Peter tells us to “love each other deeply”. The idea is that the love we show is to be a sincere, fervent love, not a fake or insincere love.
There was nothing fake or insincere about Jesus’ love to us. Stop and think for a moment about the way you’ve shown love in your life. We all know that we have been fake and insincere in our love. We have acted like we care or are concerned when we could have cared less. Suddenly we understand why Peter wrote “love covers over a multitude of sins.”. How often we have sinned and been less than loving and yet God and so many others have shown us true and real love.
As you contemplate our verse for this week and how you can put it into practice in your life of faith, know and be assured that God loves you more than you know and has forgiven all your unloving thoughts, words and actions. His Word and the Sacraments are what empower you to live that deep life of love. With that renewed encouragement to love as God first loved you, look to see how you can love everyone in every area of your life.