Seeds for 06/05/2024 - 1 Peter 4:8
Scripture:
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
Observation:
Today, I want to continue the exercise of associating these pithy exhortations with stories from other places in the Bible. Scripture illustrates and illuminates scripture.
This instruction from Peter for the Christians to whom he is writing points me to the final day or two of Jesus’ earthly life.
First, “above all, love each other deeply,” reminds me of Jesus’ demonstration and command of love in John 13:1-5, 34-35.
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God; so He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Before Jesus gave them more instructions, He gave them a demonstration of deep, servant-like, humble love in the washing of their feet. Then, all of His teaching (John 13-17) began with a call to imitate Him in humble love. “Love one another deeply” indeed.
Second, the rationale Peter gives for loving one another in such a way is, “because love covers over a multitude of sins.” I can’t help but think of the cross, of course, in John 19:16b-18. It was there that Jesus’ love covered our sins, the sins of the whole world.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying His own cross, He went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified Him, and with Him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
A significant touchstone of Christian discipleship is Christ-like love. The cross is the apex of sacrificial love. It is simultaneously an act of love that is impossible to replicate—because it was something only God the Son could do, and also the paradigm for what we are all called to do—love sacrificially. So, Jesus loved deeper than any of us can, but also gave us an example to imitate as best we can with the Spirit’s help.
Peter adds that when we love like this, that love covers over faults and shortcomings— “a multitude of sins.”
Application:
When have you been humbled by gracious, merciful love that covered over your sins and shortcomings?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, keep me centered in the love that only you can give and help me imitate your love in word and action. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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