Above all . . . It's an interesting phrase. It means more than anything else; it means higher than anything else. Nothing is more important or should receive more attention.
So when Peter uses this phrase, after 4-plus chapters of amazing insight and guidance, I pay attention to what's next. And what's next is . . . Love.
1 Peter 4:8: "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."
Hmmm . . . Whose sins? Mine? If I love my brothers and sisters deeply, does that hide or minimize my own sins? If so, is that just the sins I commit against that person, or any sins? It makes some sense to me that my loving behavior toward, say, my wife would counter-balance some of the sins I commit against her.
But maybe my loving behavior will cover the other person's sins. Maybe love enables me to overlook the bad in someone and see only the good. Maybe by loving them, I make their sins not matter, in the sense that those sins will not result in broken fellowship among the believers.
I think both are probably true. I think we have no idea how powerful love really is, for both the giver and receiver.
Peter gives some great advice on how to love (vv 9-11): "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen."
Note the end of the passage, the reason: so that in all things, God may be praised. The sole purpose of anything we do, even our love, is that God be glorified. We will sin, but if we can love each other anyway, our fellowship remains unbroken, the family of God remains strong, and He is glorified.
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