Love Values Unity
Are you good at looking past the things about other people that drive you crazy?
Verse of the Day
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
Today’s Devotional
In my experience, love really does cover a multitude of things that might otherwise irritate me. And even if those things still irritate me, there’s this sense that the overarching love for that person is more important than the idiosyncrasies that bug me. I’m not sure if this counts as “sins” as the verse states, but it speaks to me. The Message translation puts it this way: “Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything.”
That makes me think of soldiers. Maybe because I remember the graduation of my daughter from Navy boot camp. When we went to Chicago for her graduation, she had a lot to say about her rack-mate. Her name is Maya. Maya is apparently VERY smart, which was evident in the fact that she was recognized out of the 723 graduating sailors as the one who scored highest on all of the academic tests. She was funny and silly and good to have around. But she also drove my daughter a little crazy. She asked WAY too many questions and would get yelled at often by their leaders. She was also a little lax in her hygiene. But imagine that my daughter and Maya were in a battle together. The “sins” would no longer matter. Their lives would depend on their unity. They would HAVE to work together to succeed.
Isn’t that true of our Christian life and the battle for our souls and the souls of people yet to accept Jesus? Our spiritual lives and the souls of the lost depend on our unity. And maybe, just maybe, if someone still drives me crazy and that’s all I focus on….maybe I don’t really love that person the way I should.
If God is love, and He is, then He can help me love anyone. He can increase the small amounts of love I may have for someone into the kind of love that overlooks things that distract me (and are none of my business).
I also believe that the more I “do life” with people, the more I love them. It’s way easier to be judgy about people I don’t know well. Maybe because love is an action and not a feeling. Doing the actions of life with others leads us to love them more deeply. And maybe that’s what this verse is calling us to do.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How have you experienced love covering up the sins of others?
Do you recognize how the love of God, through Jesus, has covered up ALL of your sins – past, present and future? How can you live out your gratitude for this truth?
How can you “do life” with more people, in an intentional way, that will deepen your love?
Are you willing to ask God to increase your small amounts of love for certain people?