Maintain Love
Love Needs Routine Maintenance & Firewood Needs Getting Rid Of
Peter said to these believers, “Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8)
This word "maintain" implies continuous work and effort. For a maintenance director, it takes work to maintain the facility they are responsible for. For a believer, it takes work to maintain constant love for one another!
Why do we work to maintain constant love for one another? It is because “love covers a multitude of sins.” What this scripture implies is that constant love does not keep a record of wrongs or withhold forgiveness.
Most often, we treat each others’ sin like firewood. We don’t love, we don’t forgive, but rather we keep a supply. We pile up the firewood. When we’ve got enough wood and the time is right, we build a fire and let it burn. We bring up what happened years ago, we bring up what happened a month ago, we bring up what happened last week, and we bring up what happened yesterday all in one setting.
That is not love. That is not the kind of love that addresses sin when there is a need to have a conversation. That is not the kind of love that because we love someone deeply, we are willing to forgive and move forward without a single word being spoken to them, and with it never being brought back up again.
The encouragement of 1 Peter 4:8 is first that my effort and my work to maintain love for other brothers and sisters in Christ is of greatest importance. Second, this love is important because it will put my heart in a position so my love for my brothers and sisters in Christ will cover their multitude of sins without a conversation being needed. I will forgive and forget because God has forgiven my sin and cast it as far as the east is from the west. I won’t collect a supply of firewood and I won’t be waiting and ready to light a bonfire.
Do we love our brothers and sisters in Christ with that kind of love? Do we work to maintain constant love so that we are willing to have hard conversations when needed, but also willing to forgive, not keep a record of wrongs, and move past them when we are able? Do we have some routine maintenance that needs to be done? Do we have some firewood we need to get rid of?
Love you, church!
Pastor John
