“Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.”-Colossians 3:14
Imagine with me that you were going to be out of town for an extended period of time, so you ask someone if they would be willing to house-sit for you while you're gone. After someone agrees to look after your home, you then leave some instructions on important things for them to not forget. You say things like, "Please remember to turn the heat down when you’re gone during the day. Please water the plants regularly, feed the pets, check the mail, etc.” If there was a particular task you wanted to absolutely make sure they would not forget, you’d say, “Above all, please remember to…” or, "Most important of all, don't forget to..." And then you would strongly highlight the directions because they truly matter to you. Well, there's no doubt God wanted to emphasize something of deep significance when He spoke through the Apostle Paul to remind God’s people that "Above all, clothe yourselves with love…”
The meaning of the phrase, “above all” according to dictionary.com is: “most important of all; before everything else; chiefly.” The sentence starter “above all" adds a very strong emphasis to the remainder of the sentence. So what exactly did God want to communicate through Paul to every Christian that required such a strong statement? The Lord wanted to make it clear that above all, most important of all…remember love! Choose to love. Cover yourself with love. Do all with love! For love is what binds Christians together in true unity! It's helpful to remember that this isn’t the only time love is so strongly emphasized in the Bible. Paul underscored it further in 1 Corinthians 13. This whole chapter is dedicated to the great value of love. In 1 Corinthians 14:1 we read, “Let love be your highest goal!” God obviously wanted Peter to accentuate love, just as Paul did. 1 Peter 4:8 puts it this way: “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.” The Lord also had John put a spotlight on love saying, “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8). Love matters to God! Thus, it must matter to us as His followers. In fact, love is so key as Christians that Jesus stated the primary marker, the main way others will know we are Christ-followers, is by our love (John 13:35)!
Might we acknowledge afresh that our call to love is supreme! We are to put on love, to choose to love, to speak love, to show love, and to give love abundantly. How do we do that? First, to love well at all means we must personally know God’s love. So let’s be reminded today! Fill your mind with the truth of John 3:16: God sent His Son on purpose to give His life for ours that we might not perish! It was because of His great love that He did this! This is profound truth to trust. Believe it. Remember it. Cherish it! For, before the foundation of the world, Scripture tells us: “Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes” (Ephesians 1:4). We must marinate our minds with the love of God. Then we are to love as we are loved! God's love is expressed in countless ways. He is ever kind to us, so we choose to be kind to others. God is ever patient with us, so we follow His lead and choose to be patient with others. God forgives, gives, speaks truth, bears with, makes allowance for, and doesn’t give up on us, all because of His love. In short, let's recall our call to live loved and live to love! 1 John 4:19 says it like this: “We love because He first loved us.”
Cheer up, friends!
-Scott