1 Peter chapter 4, verse number 8. And above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging, as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. We ask, Heavenly Father, your blessing as we consider a portion of this scripture. We pray, Father, we might apply it properly and live it properly for the glory of our Lord and Savior. We ask these things in his name. Amen. You may be seated. We will assume that no sincere Christian would ever admit to arguing with Peter or with any of the other penmen of the scriptures. Every well-taught Christian realizes that Peter was not essentially the author of this epistle or the next one. The Holy Spirit is the author of the Word of God. And if we ever decide that we are going to argue with what we find in the pages of this book, essentially we are arguing with the Lord himself. And that is not a very wise thing to do. Shouldn't differ with the Lord. But the fact of the matter is, we do it all the time. Sometimes inadvertently, sometimes unintentionally, and sometimes not so much. We do it. An extreme example would be Jonah. God, in essence, said to Jonah one day, I love the people of Nineveh. Go evangelize them. And Jonah essentially said, I don't love the people of Nineveh. I'm not going to go and evangelize them. And he began running in the opposite direction. Again, we do that sort of thing once in a while. For example, what is your opinion of that homeless man? More radically, that transsexual. Do you really want to evangelize him? Do you really want to see that person in your church? We're not gonna argue with God, but Lord, we're not leaning in that direction, even though the Lord might be. Do you really want to evangelize that sort of person? Okay, we've read the text, and I said this morning that we would be looking at verse number eight. So you know essentially what my subject is going to be this evening, but what if I ask this next question last Wednesday, or earlier than that? What is the most important duty of the Christian? If I'd asked that on Wednesday, how would you have answered that? What is the most important duty of the Christian? Well, we've spent 15 lessons on evangelism thus far. You might have said on Sunday morning, our evangelism is our number one responsibility, glorifying God and the spreading of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or someone else might have replied, the most important duty of the child of God is to live a sanctified life, to choose to stand with God, to cast aside the sins that have so easily beset us, and we want to go on to serve the Lord in sincerity and truth. The Pharisees among us might have answered, doctrinal purity is the Christian's most important duty. The Christian politicians might have answered, draining the swamp in Washington, D.C. Without the context of our text, without some previous thought on the subject, Together, we might have come up with a dozen different answers to that question. What is it that Peter tells us in verse number eight? He says, and above all things, above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves. I have friends who are who venerate our King James Bible to the point of near idolatry. Please don't misunderstand, I love the King James, that's all that I'm ever going to use in this pulpit. But sometimes, comments need to be made to improve our understanding of the 17th century language in which it was first given to us. and none of my near Rachmanite friends would mind if I told you that the word charity here does not refer to the voluntary giving of help or money to someone who needs these things. That is the common current definition and I have no problem with that. There is a modern definition of charity and that's essentially it. But the Greek word which Peter uses and which is common throughout the New Testament is agape. And it means, its definition is, love. That's the meaning of the word. No one I know, even those who demand that the King James is perfect, would argue with me when I say the word charity refers to love. I hope I don't need to define the word for you, but I will try to do that. Not very well, of course. Most of us understand it reasonably well, whether we can verbalize a definition or not. Love is an intense feeling of deep affection for something or someone. Reasonable definition. Jesus tells us to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. All thy soul, all thy strength, all thy mind. In other words, with everything you've got, love the Lord. This is the first commandment. This is the first commandment in importance. coming very near to what Peter says, and above all things, have fervent love one for another. But in Peter's statement, he isn't repeating the Lord's command to love God. He is telling us to love one another fervently. I'm at a loss as to what to say more about this love. except to exhort us not to balk at the exhortation. You are not given a choice whether or not you should love your fellow saint. You're told to do it. Do it. We're not given the privilege to weigh the reasons for our love. Does he love me? Well, he doesn't love me enough that I should be obliged to love him. He may say that he loves me, but what he did to me the other day does not suggest love, and therefore I am not obligated to love him. I don't have to love him because he doesn't tell me that he loves me. We are to love our brethren whether or not we think there is good reason to do so. We have good reason. It's right there in verse number eight. Do it. I will remind you that there are two families of words which are translated love in the Greek New Testament. The second word is phileo. related to Philadelphia. This latter word is often translated brotherly love. The first word, agape or agapeo, while used in other ways, as far as I remember, is the only word love that refers to God's love. He does not have brotherly love for anyone. His is agape. And this is the word that Peter uses right here. He is essentially reminding us to love our brethren as God loves. As God loves us. Based upon that, it should not be necessary that we have a reason to love. Because God had no reason to love us. God loved us when we were completely unlovable. Completely. And that is our standard for loving others. Our subject this evening is love. Think about those words, above all things, Peter uses right here. Peter doesn't say, besides everything else, love one another. He says this should be above other things. And Peter's not the only apostle to elevate love like that. I will remind you, he is not the one who is known as the apostle of love. Paul, in writing to the Colossian Christians, exhorts them to do a number of things, just as Peter does here. He says in chapter three, put on therefore, as elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind. clothe yourself in meekness and long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so do ye. And then he says, just as Peter does, and above all these, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Colossians chapter 3, 12 through 14. Prior to that, Paul spends an entire chapter elevating love. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. To the Thessalonians, he said, the Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward one another. 1 Thessalonians 3.12. And in the next chapter, but as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. Chapter four, verse number nine. And then to Timothy, he said, at the end of God's, the end of God's commandments is to love out of a pure heart. And then of course, there's the Apostle John, someone known for his love. Read through 1 John, we see it again and again and again. Chapter three, verse 23, this is God's commandment, that we should believe on the name of the Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him. And this is the commandment we have of him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also. 1 John 4, 21. Can we honestly say we are children of God if we do not love our brother in Christ? The apostles essentially were repeating the words of the Lord Jesus. And he said, a new commandment I give unto you, a new commandment. We have all of these ones out of the Old Testament. Here's a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another. Why is it that so many Baptists insist that Christ's disciples are to be known for their exactitude in doctrine when Jesus says something else? Who creates our standard? Some theologian, Baptist, or the Lord Jesus? Peter applies the adjective fervent to his statement, and above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves. In English, that word speaks of something hot, to the point of boiling, and that is its Latin root. Then Webster speaks of something swelling and expanding under the heat. And he also points to a boiling, churning, fervent swarm of bees. That's right there in his dictionary. It's easy to see what Peter is saying about our love. It should be churning, it should be boiling, it should be expanding. It should be heating up, getting more and more excited all the time. Hebrews 13.1 says in a very calm way, let brotherly love continue. Peter says much more than that. Fervent love, that's what we're supposed to have. However, The Greek word for fervent carries a little more meaning than our English dictionary. The Greek word is used only twice in the Bible, and this is the second time that it is used, and here it's translated fervent. The first time that Greek word is used is in Acts chapter 12 and verse number five, where we read, Peter therefore was kept in prison. but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. The word which is translated fervent over here is translated without ceasing over there. The Greek word implies something which grows incessantly. The Jerusalem church loved their apostle. And while he was in prison, where other Christians had been murdered or killed, Peter is in danger of his life, and they want him back. So they prayed fervently and incessantly to the Lord, begging the Lord for Peter's release. And that was granted. He was released. Earlier in this epistle, Peter used a different adjective to describe Christian love. He said, seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. Once again, he used the word fervent, but in the same verse, in the same breath, he spoke of unfeigned love. Unfaked love, if you like. Don't pretend to love one another. Do it. Don't be hypocritical in your love. Showing love to that person when you're with him, and then when you're not with him, you're gossiping about him. Make sure it's real. Be genuine in your love. Okay, why? Why is this so important? Why is this above all things? Well, he doesn't tell us. So I just had to stretch my imagination. I'll offer a few things and probably this is not nearly enough. One thing, Living this love, extending this love, helps to keep things in perspective. As I've said, we're to love as God loved us. For God so loved the world. We love him. We love, period, because he first loved us. And here is the truth. We are a bunch of unworthy, unlovable sinners before God until His grace comes along. And we may not have very much to encourage the love of another person toward us. You are no more worthy of love than that other Christian whom you refuse to love because he's so unworthy of love. Why is it important for us to love one another? Because the people around us need that love. They need to hear us speak of that love. Hopefully I won't embarrass myself. I have a male friend, a man who is happily married, a man who has no societal or sexual hangups, who quite often says to me, brother, I love you. And you know what? My heart feasts on that. I can live with that. That's all right. And I'm no more emotionally dysfunctional than he is. I can tolerate that. The other day I was with a Christian man who for years was away from the Lord, living somewhat like Jonah, and even experiencing his own wail. And like Jonah, he came out safely on the other side. After a pleasant hour of conversation, we were starting to go our separate ways, and I said to him in all sincerity, Brother, I love you. And I'm not sure, but judging from his reaction, I would guess that he has not heard those words from anyone but his wife and his children for a very long time. He Gasp just a little bit. There are people out there, there are thousands of people out there who need to know that they are appreciated, that need to know that they are loved. And who is going to do it if God's people don't do it? How are they going to hear those words if we don't speak them in or with sincerity? And by the way, you and I need to share that love as much as we need to receive that love. Like an athlete working on a special set of muscles in order to get better, this is a very special muscle. The heart is a muscle. The better shape that it's in, the better our general health will be. And extending that illustration, the stronger our heart becomes, the more onward progress we can make. We need to strengthen this muscle. Love is a part of the pavement we need in order to find our way to the throne room of God. And just in passing, just because Peter is talking about brotherly love, He isn't forbidding us to love our enemy. Love is an unlimited commodity. We'll never run out. You can't give it away and find yourself empty. In fact, the more we give it away, the stronger we find it within ourselves. Without neglecting the love of the brethren, we need to love the lost man as well. And then we go back to the words of the Lord Jesus, our love of God. Peter goes on to say, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Love shall cover the multitude of sins. Here's another in that series of recent statements, which has the potential to lead into serious false doctrine. I can just hear some heretic telling his congregation that if they love one another sufficiently, then God will be moved to take them to heaven because they love properly. They will cover their own sins by proper love. But that's not what Peter is saying. The sins which are covered here are not our own. They're the sins of that other person. And that has nothing to do with salvation from those sins. Why do marriages dissolve? There are probably several hundred specifics, this thing and that thing. But they can be merged down into just a handful of generalizations. And one is the clash between the great love that I have for myself over the smaller love that I have for my spouse. Where there is true love, there will be the means of covering a multitude of sins. Yes, your spouse snores. and is half deaf, making you repeat every other sentence all throughout the day. And there are a dozen other little habits which are like pin pricks on your soul. But because you love your wife, because you love your husband, you can live with that stuff. You get over that stuff. And the same thing can be said within a church context. We all have our share of irritating idiosyncrasies. I've got mine. We all have our problems. But where there is love, there is the ability to rise above those problems that your pew mate has. In the absence of that love, churches explode. This is where Peter is going. Our churches need to be filled with brotherly love for the health of the congregation. Was Peter thinking of Proverbs 10, 12 when he wrote this verse? Proverbs says, hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins. Sounds like he may have been thinking of that verse. Has anyone ever truly hated you? Then you know what the first part of this proverb is saying. The person who hates you will find a multitude of reasons to stir up the strife between you, and he'll keep the pot stirred. But then, then there was your mother. Didn't that wonderful woman truly love you? That's the reason she's stuck with you through all those years of your rebellion. She loved you. Love is one of the few things in the world with the consistency sufficient to cover sin. I'm not talking about the atonement. Patience might work for a while at covering sin, but after some time, it will get thin and wash away. Patience can only last so long. Physical gratification might also work for a short time, making a marriage work, as will the piece of paper called a marriage certificate. I have this piece of paper, we're supposed to stay married. But in actual fact, only strong love is thick enough, sticky enough, dark enough to cover your many sins. I don't know if I'm justified in pointing to the definite article in the last part of verse number eight, because actually it can't be found in the Greek, but there it is in our English Bible. Our translators wrote, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. My Bible says that, does your Bible say that? Okay, great. I should have checked other scriptures. Doesn't the article The or thee suggests that there is a specific multitude of sins. Isn't it true that the Lord knows about each and every one of them? Well, the fact is he may not be the only one who has a list of your sins in his pocket. I'm sure that we all have someone who'd be very happy to produce an itemized list of your failings and my failings. Praise God for the blanket of love that can cover that multitude of sins. Love is important within a church context for a variety of reasons. It should be something which animates our prayers for one another. We love that person. And no pun intended, love is charitable. Love loves to give, which is always beneficial within a church. Love makes for pretty good glue, if you like. Notice the words among yourselves. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves. Love should be like a thread of Gold. It goes in this direction for a while and wraps around another thread and then goes in another direction until it binds everybody together. As it's shared, it's picked up and sent to someone else. Running and weaving, it binds that congregation together. When love is present, there will be a congregation that rejoices with them that rejoice and weeps with that one who is sad. In the next few verses, Peter talks about hospitality and ministry and the support of people under persecution. In that day and in that context, those were important subjects. They perhaps not as much today, but they still have their place, hospitality and that sort of thing. But before any of them, Peter says, love one another. Above all other things, have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Please stand.