Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)

Love covers a multitude of sins. Love repeatedly forgives. Love covers all transgressions. It leaves no gaps. It heals all wounds. It provides for all needs. Because it is who God is. He knows how important love is and instructs us to keep fervent in it. He knows the potential and power love has, and He doesn’t want us to miss any of it.

Keeping fervent indicates a commitment to intensity. It’s not just about fervency but also the abiding in it. We are to keep fervent. We must be intentional. We must pursue love for one another.

And if we don’t?

I think we all know what happens. We lose our focus on the love of God, we lose sight on His and our love for one another, and we end up in a disoriented mess. Life is going to be messy no matter what, because we don’t live in a perfect world. That’s not God’s plan for us at this time in this life. So, messes are a given. But when we live in those messes in the presence and will of God’s love, when we intentionally live it out loud with others, we find peace in the mess. We respect each other even when we disagree. We forgive each other when we offend. We reconcile instead of retaliate.

We keep fervent in God’s love when we accept His love. We keep fervent in God’s love when we seek Him. We keep fervent in God’s love when we know Him intimately. We keep fervent in God’s love when we are intentional in our relationship with Him. Even keeping fervent requires a commitment.

Everything about God requires commitment. Our relationship with Him is never a secondary option. It’s not a back-up plan. It’s His plan and His priority. We have faith His way. We live His way. We love His way. It’s not because He leaves us out of the equation; it’s because He loves us so much in the relationship. He knows and understands all. He created us and is invested in us. He is God.

He is love.

Accept.

Dear God, You are love. Thank You. Thank You for pouring into me, for loving me, and for helping me experience and live Your love out loud. I am committed to continually seeking You and living boldly for You. Amen.

Seek.

How committed are you to God’s love?

How are you committed to loving others with God’s love?

How fervent are you in the pursuit of loving God and others?

Know.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. (1 John 4:7-21)