Speaking to suffering people, Peter says this:
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)
Usually, suffering people are focused only on themselves. “I don’t have time for your problems – I’ve got enough of my own. I don’t have time to pray for your sick aunt. I don’t have time to help you move. I’ve got enough to deal with in my own life.”
But Peter says above all, we must love. Even when we’re suffering. And when we do, we’re covering over sin. Not hiding sin or endorsing sin. Obliterating sin. Which includes our own sin and the sin of the people around us.
1 Corinthians 13 says if you love, then…
- You’ll be patient and kind, even with people who are impatient and unkind.
- You won’t envy or boast, even when everyone else you know is posting every little accomplishment on Facebook so everyone else can congratulate them.
- You won’t be arrogant or rude, even when everyone else is passive-aggressive (or aggressive-aggressive) in their maneuvering to get what they want.
- You won’t insist on your own way, even when that means you’ll have no hope of getting your own way.
- You won’t be irritable or resentful, when you would normally be frustrated and annoyed.
- You’ll bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things, even when life seems un-bearable, and the people around you are un-believable.
But if you don’t have love, then…
- You’ll always be suspicious of what other people say.
- You’ll always think the worst of what other people do.
- You’ll always be annoyed by how other people live.
- You’ll always quit when other people require you to endure.
So what if you find yourself living more in the second list than the first? Do you need to work harder to love? Strain and grunt your way into bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and enduring all things?
No. Instead, focus on the work Christ did for you:
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, (1 Peter 4:1)