Love

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." I Peter 4:8

Love is at the center of the Christian life. Paul says that if we have not love then we are just noise. Peter calls us to love fully, truly and completely. He says that it covers a multitude of sins. In the words of Paul, it keeps no record of wrongs. For true forgiveness and reconciliation to happen, love must abound. There is no forgiveness apart from love. Jesus took this concept one step further in Matthew 5:43-48 when He commands us to love our enemies. It's easy for us to love those who love us. Even the pagans do that, according to Jesus. It is hard to love those who hate you, despise you or avoid you. It's hard to love those that have hurt you, failed you or scarred you. No one says love was easy. When I think of love, I am always reminded of Jesus who demonstrated His love for us in that He gave himself for us while we were still in our sin. You see God loves us with no guarantee that we will love him back. He sets the example for us in this. We want to love only those who will return that love to us. That's why Jesus calls us to love our enemies. When we begin to do that then we begin to understand what true love is. Who do you need to love today? How will you show love to those that may not show that same love back? When we begin to love like this, we are crashing into life.