Above all, keep your love for one another at full strength, since love covers a multitude of sins. - 1 Peter 4:8
Many years prior to the writing of this letter, Jesus sat down with Peter on a Galilean seashore and asked him three times, "Do you love Me?" At another (earlier) time, Jesus was speaking to all of His disciples when He said that the world would know they were His followers because of the love they revealed for one another. In this sentence, Peter states what appears to be two abiding principles for the Church, love for Christ and love for one another.
The foremost principle for any local church in crisis (or not) is the consistent, steadfast love for and within the family of God. For it is this love, a love that originated in the heart of the Father, was revealed in the life and death of His Son, and then implanted by the presence of the Spirit that identifies us as the Lord's unique possession.
And this love, the love of God in Christ Jesus, covers a multitude of sins. For the love of God, let us love one another.
Love will draw an elephant through a key-hole. - Samuel Richardson
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