ABOVE ALL THINGS

“Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” 1Peter 4:8

Charity is love. Fervent charity is the manifestation of love with passionate enthusiasm. Our Lord displayed fervent charity for His people when He fulfilled God’s law for them and died for their sin - “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” 1John 4:9. The scriptures with Divine certainty declare that God’s love is the ultimate and moving cause of all that pertains to the salvation of the elect. And consequently the love of God which is shed abroad in our heart is the moving cause of all that the child of God does that really and truly glorifies God and His Son - “We love Him, because He first loved us” 1John 4:19. The child of God being begotten by love, having graciously received the Spirit of God, bears the fruit of the Spirit which is - “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” Galatians 5:22-24. Fruit, being singular, implies that all these virtues are inseparable. Love being placed as the first is no accident, for without love the others would mean nothing. Therefore, those to whom God has revealed His love in Christ and His redemptive work love Him and this love is manifested by His Spirit toward Him and His body, which is the church. This love is not in word only but also in action and attitude. Fervent charity among the brethren is a testimony to the world that we love Him Who first loved us. The absence of love for the brethren is an undeniable witness that we have not the love of God dwelling in us - “…whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” 1John 3:17

- Tommy