Love Above All
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 121 viewsNotes
Transcript
We believe at The Summit Church that, as the Scripture says, marriage is to be held in honor among all. Marriage is God’s design, intention, and ordinance for you Francis and Endurance today.
Marriage though is no fairytale. Marriage is hard work. The theme of our premarital counseling is “always be working on your marriage.” A marriage, much like your walk with Lord is easier growing or shrinking. Advancing or retreating.
Part of what makes marriage so hard is God takes two completely different people, and not just two different individuals, but two different genders and he puts them together and he says now love this person you don’t understand.
I remember when I got married I would come home from work and be perfectly happy being home and being in wifes presence without a word being spoken. Many men here can probably relate to that. Yet I would leave my wife frustrated because and I had to be told this… I wasn’t asking her about her day. Oh I need to ask you all these questions when I come home.
You see my wife experienced love in a different way than I often did. She wasn’t exactly like me. She wasn’t one of the boys. And I had to learn to love her as a woman and especially as my wife and I am still learning that and she likewise me. And just when you think you have eachother figured out you will realize that this person doesn’t even stay the same so what was true two years ago isnt necisarily true today.
Francis and Endurance.... marriage is hard work.
But this friend is by design. The Creator knew what He was doing when He made marriage, the closest and most special of human relationships.
1st Peter 4:8 says this:
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 4
Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
Did you here what the great Apostle Peter said friends love “Above all”. ABOVE ALL. Above All keep fervent in your love for one another.
The great missionary the apostle Paul said something similar when he spoke of the “more excellent way” which as you all know is love. As great as faith is and as great as hope is greater still is love in 1 Corinthians 13.
The disciple whom Jesus loved, John, of course taught us “God is love” in 1 John.
It is no suprise then that Christians are told by the Lord Himself to Love God with all heart, soul, mind and strength and to love neighbor as oneself. At the center of our existence with God is relationship and at the center of our relationship is love. At the center of our human experiences are relationships. You are all here today because you understand this. We don’t have ceremonies to celebrate things but people. And at the center of our human relationships is love.
The Apostle Paul of course applies this to husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
and to wives for husbands as well
4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,
Love is the mark of the Christian. And love is the mark of a marriage. And this is by design.
It wasn’t enough for God to create Adam, He created Eve and it was only then was it “very good” the Bible says. In fact the great command he gave them was to be fruitful and multiply. In doing so they were living out their mandate as image bearers. In other words one of the chief way mankind was going to glorify its creator was through family. Through relationship with closest members of ones family. We were going to do what the Godhead has always done, “love one another.”
This is why Peter could say, “Above ALL, keep fervent in your love for one another....”
But of course a problem would come into the picture almost right away. Sin would enter picture. Mankind, chiefly Adam, would put himself first and sin and death would enter the world. And friends I want to give you a somber warning today. Sin has been reaking havoc on marriages ever since. John Bunyan defined sin this way:
“Sin is the dare of God's justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.” - John Bunyan
So when I say marriage is hard work. It is not just learning to love someone who is different then you. But it is learning to love someone who is a fellow sinner like yourself. This is why this passage, 1 Peter 4:8, is so important for us today:
8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
The word here for “fervant” means quite litterally “at full stretch” or “to stretch out”. I Howard Marshall says: “this love will be stretched to the limit by the demands made on it.”
Wayne Grudem says
Where love abounds in a fellowship of Christians, many small offences, and even some large ones, are readily overlooked and forgotten. But where love is lacking, every word is viewed with suspicion, every action is liable to misunderstanding, and conflicts abound—to Satan’s perverse delight
Grudem, W. A. (1988). 1 Peter: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 17, p. 181). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
How true this can be of marriage. Where the other person can get on our nerves and push our buttons. We as Christians… as Christians husbands and wives must not operate this way. We must not keep score. We must not hold grudges. and We must be quick to repent and even quicker to forgive. and we must be quick to resolve to learn and grow. But I want you to see my friends that love covers a multitude of sins.
But the story of marriage in the Bible isn’t just a story of God creating something good in Genesis 1 and 2 and mankind tarnishing it with sin one chapter later. The story of marriage in the Bible is a story of redemption.
Jesus’ first miracle was at a wedding. Do you think that is a coincidence friends? Not at all. The Bible begins with a wedding, Adam and Eve, and it ends with a wedding, Revelation 19, the marriage supper of Lamb. God’s redemption of His Church. And Jesus taught us the true meaning of love when He gavehimself up for His bride, the church.
But Jesus died to save us from our sins. Love covers a multitude of sins because Jesus loved us and died for our sins. The Bible says,
19 He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea.
This is the very thing Jesus did at the cross.
12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
God did not leave mankind helpless in our sins. Doomed to be seperated from God for all eternity. Nope. He took responsibility for something that wasn’t his problem. The Bible says while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He, the God man, with shoulders big enough to carry our sin paid the price in full so we could be set free.
Love is the great antidote for sin. But it is not a love that we can merely muster in our own strength it is a love that comes from God.
Francis and Endurance. You must cling to your savior if you want to love eachother well. If you want to “love above all” then you must cling to Jesus. You must keep in step with Him every day.
It is not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation, the atoning sacrifce, for our sins.
Sin will not be the master of your marriage. Christ will be. Because of His great love. And if you all do not anchor yourself in the love of Christ you will not be able to cover the multitude of sins in your marriage. And just to be super candid with you both. There may have been a day and age when societal pressures would keep two people together. Those days are gone. I truly believe keeping Christ at the center of it all is the hope of your marriage.
12 Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all transgressions.
Will you be a peacemaker or a strife maker. Your commitment to love the other person above yourself here today will be the test of that.
Augustine famously said in his work “Confessions”:
“To Carthage I came. There I put my ear to the cauldron and heard from within and all around a song of unholy loves. I did not love, but I loved the thought of love. And in the depths of my desires, I detested the fact that I could not love more. I looked for something to love in my love of loving. I hated safety and wanted no path that did not have its snares. The reason was that inside me there was a famine of inward food. I was starving for You, my God.”
Augustine had not become a Christian at this point in his life but reflecting back, as a Christian, he realized He was made to love, the great command from the Creator, yet he was filling those desires with unholy loves. Well Francis and endurance what you two are participating intoday is “holy matrimony”. It is a holy love. Sometihng you must give yourselves to entirely. Heart, soul, mind and strength. But remember unless that inward need has first been met by God you will not be able to “love above all” as Word of God instruction the Christian to do.
Marriage is hard work but love is more than capable. Not the temporal romance of movies that burns bright like a match that has just been struck only to burn out moments later. But biblical love is a will and a choice and commitment to the other person. It is like the engine of a train that makes the whole machine move and get to where it needs to go. Faithful, consistent, and enduring.
Francis and Endurance we commit you both to God and we commit your marriage to Him. And charge you today keep Jesus and His great love at the center of your marriage.
ABOVE ALL KEEP FERVENT IN YOUR LOVE FOR ANOTHER