Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
I love my dad. He loves me. Numerous times he would say this to me, "Son, this is very important." I don't know what you have in your life, but there's some things that are just incredibly important. When you hear that word important in our Verse of the Day, you probably perk up.
Our Verse of the Day today is 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 8. It says, "Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins."
The book of 1 Peter starts out, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who caused us to be born again to a living hope." Then you fast forward to chapter 4 and we see this tremendous verse, which prompts us to look at three ways to love powerfully and to love appropriately.
Number One: The Priority
Let's call it the priority. Remember the priority. He says right there, "Most important of all." What He's going to say after this, it's got a lot of horsepower to it, and we need to remember the priority.
Number Two: The Practice
Secondly, I love this—the practice. "Continue to show deep love for each other." First Corinthians 13, of course, says the greatest of these is love. John 3, God so loved the world. Love is the tremendous quality of God. This is something that you, that I, if you're a husband, a father, you should try to incorporate love in your life, your workplace, whatever it is. We want to be these types of people who continue to love one another, and it's shown in our practice.
Number Three: The Power
Thirdly, it's not only the priority and secondly, not only the practice, but thirdly, let's call it the power. "For love covers a multitude of sins." I have a lot of people in my life. They really do this. They love me, they care for me, and they actually cover me and give me grace when quite frankly, sometimes I really don't feel like I deserve it.
Calls to Action
What are some calls to action that we can take from our verse? I'll quickly give you a couple of them.
Number one, love others by covering their sins. I don't mean justifying. I don't mean playing fast and loose with sin or justifying sin. We don't want to do that. The Bible says in Romans chapter 6, verse 1, "What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means." We're not talking about justifying sin, but we are talking about the importance of loving others and being able to cover their sin. Proverbs chapter 10, verse 12 says, "Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions."
Second, and finally, thank God that He covered all of your sins. Did you know that our ability to cover other people's sins, is directly related to our understanding of Jesus Christ covering our own? He's forgiven me of all my sins. He has lived a life I could never live. He's died the death I could never die. He's justified me and He's forgiven me of every single one of them that will never be held against me. Romans chapter 8, verse 1 says, "There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ." Your understanding of that gives you and I the ability to cover other people's sins.
May you and I love others by covering their sins, for you and I have been covered by the amazing grace of God.
