NEW YEAR SERMON, “A Love That Covers…” (1 Peter 4: 8) on Sunday January 1st 2023.
(Please read Psalm 147; Philippians 2: 1-11, 1 Corinthians 13; 1 Peter 4: 1-11).
Under the Spirit’s guidance, Peter wrote his letters to strengthen and encourage the church (es) in their exile and suffering. He told them not to be astonished if they suffered for Christ, rather to expect trials and accept them patiently, to hope in God. Peter had been a brash young action-man. Now, in his later years, he has grown in spiritual maturity and in love.
Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble (1 Peter 3:8).
Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honour the emperor (1 Peter 2:17).
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart (1 Peter 1:22).
Greet one another with a (holy) kiss of love (1 Peter 5:14).
2 Peter 1.7: and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What the church will need more than anything else, if she is to survive and thrive through the hard times, is ‘love, sweet love. It’s the only thing there’s just too little of!’ In essence, this is what Peter says. I think that’s why we chose this particular scripture as our 2023 Motto text. It’s the only thing there’s just too little of! It’s the thing we should all be working on. If we are going to be able to pray and serve the Lord and one another effectively love will have to be the top priority. Love (its possession, upkeep and spreading) is the distinguishing badge of our religion.
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).
Peter’s hearers would have heard this kind of thing before.
Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offences (Proverbs 10:12).
Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offence (Proverbs 19:11).
Peter’s own experience of Jesus was that of pure love. Peter loved Jesus because Jesus loved Peter for all his foolishness and sins. Peter’s preaching and teaching and living was based on the love Christ had (has) for him. When Peter penned these words, he must, surely, have been thinking about how Christ had died for him at the cross; and there, wiped away, passed-over, covered over, atoned for, (forgiven) his own multitude of sins. Recall how Peter had denied ever knowing Jesus, betrayed him, left him when the going got tough; but Jesus came back for him.
Peter’s experience is the same as ours. God (in Christ) covered us in royal robes we don’t deserve. A multitude of sins have been covered. People give up on themselves, or on others, sometimes they give up on life itself, because they don’t know this is possible. Or they think it’s too late…
“When God pardons, he consigns the offence to everlasting forgetfulness…”
In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back (Isaiah 38).
Let’s face it, if the Lord were to hold against us our every sin (committed in 2022), which one of us could stand?! (Psalm 130)
But being loved by God and loving God, though a beautiful thing is only part of the story, the easy part…
New Year can be a good time for taking stock of lives; for turning honestly to God in prayer and confessing: “Lord, my love for you and for others is such a poor and pale reflection of your own love. Help me love like you…”
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
It is not difficult to love when you agree with someone or have much in common with them. But when these things are not obvious, this is when we need agape love to overcome (cover over) all the prejudices and barriers that would keep us from loving one another. Jesus brought together an all-sort-assortment in his team of disciples. Naturally this arrangement was not going to work. They all had to learn that they were sinners, saved by grace. It is this we need when things get difficult.
Sometimes it’s best to let things go, something said or done to us. When we have to face conflict and have to share the truth… we do it in love. We remove aggravations; we pour water, not oil, on the flames…
Love is to be fervent (done deeply) which means “a stretched out” love. Imagine a thoroughbred stretching its long legs and straining every muscle to reach the finish line. This love takes effort and commitment and capacity. There must be space for love to grow…
We have to work out what it means to love God and neighbour as ourselves. Love is accepting another person for what he or she is in Christ, not what we would like them to be. Love forgives seventy times seventy and forgets. It accepts. It overlooks the obvious faults. It is not critical and constantly dragging another person’s faults into public view or for consumption on social media. Every Christian in every local church needs this kind of love. We need this kind of love, and only God can give it to us. C. S. Lewis said, “God is in the business of making bad people good, and good people better.”
Notice, Peter says above all. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).
Before everything else in our relationships within the church, we must have love. Love is the most excellent virtue 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Love is the real currency of the church and the bricks and mortar which hold it together. Paul has the best and final word on love:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hope, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
We know God’s love is a love that covers over a multitude of sins, mine and yours. God extended such love to you. So give it to others. He showed you mercy and grace and forgiveness…. “Without forgiveness and love, you will live with resentment, bitterness, malice and strife which result in more pain... without forgiveness you cannot know forgiveness or grow in love…”
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).
Let this be our aim, our resolution and our prayer for 2023!
MFR 30/12/22
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An illustration on love
The lovely old film, “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” features a story many of us know from childhood.
Mrs. Chipping speaks on behalf of her husband Mr. Chips: they want the School to change its practices and, when speaking to the rather traditional Head Master, she recounts the fable of the cold North Wind and the Sun:
The North Wind and the Sun had a quarrel about which of them was the stronger. While they were disputing with much heat and bluster, a Traveller passed along the road wrapped in a cloak.
"Let us agree," said the Sun, "that he is the stronger who can strip that Traveller of his cloak."
"Very well," growled the North Wind, and at once sent a cold, howling blast against the Traveller.
With the first gust of wind the ends of the cloak whipped about the Traveller's body. But he immediately wrapped it closely around him, and the harder the Wind blew, the tighter he held it to him. The North Wind tore angrily at the cloak, but all his efforts were in vain.
Then the Sun began to shine. At first his beams were gentle, and in the pleasant warmth after the bitter cold of the North Wind, the Traveller unfastened his cloak and let it hang loosely from his shoulders. The Sun's rays grew warmer and warmer.
The man took off his cap and mopped his brow. At last he became so heated that he pulled off his cloak, and, to escape the blazing sunshine, threw himself down in the welcome shade of a tree by the roadside…
What Mrs. Chipping really meant was that gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail. Love never fails!
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