Sermon | 1 Peter 4:7–11 | 2026 May 31
Title: Sermon | 1 Peter 4:7–11 | 2026 May 31
Scripture: 1 Peter 4:7–11 (ESV, reference only)
Date: 2026 May 31
Speaker: Rev. John Chen
Translated & edited by: Joseph Wang (Yufan)
The Eschatological Community
1 Peter 4:7–11
Introduction:
First Peter was written to believers who were living under persecution at that time. In this letter, the apostle Peter repeatedly reminds them that those who follow Christ will inevitably suffer misunderstanding, rejection, and even suffering in this world because of their faith.
In chapter 4, there is a clear structure: verses 1–6 speak of Christians suffering for the sake of the gospel; after verse 12, Peter again teaches believers how they should face suffering for the name of Christ.
But between these two sections of teaching on “suffering,” Peter deliberately inserts verses 7–11, speaking about the internal life of the church. From a literary perspective, there must be something he especially wants to express, something very important he wants to communicate—
External persecution is real. It may cause you to suffer in the body, and may even cause you to lose your earthly life. But from the perspective of eternity, what people must ultimately face is standing before God to give an account: how can one still stand firm in suffering? How can one remain faithful to the gospel under pressure?
The answer is this: being built up in the healthy common life of the church.
In other words, the strength with which Christians face the world does not come from fighting alone, but from a spiritual community: the church.
Summary: The end of all things is near. The Lord is coming soon. Because in the future you will give an account, therefore now you must live out a pattern of life different from the world. Then what kind of life should such an eschatological community have? There are three important characteristics:
I. Watching over one another (v. 7)
II. Loving one another (vv. 8–9)
III. Serving one another (vv. 10–11)
If the church is, to you, merely a place for gathering, you will find it very difficult to endure the pressure of the age. But if the church becomes a community, then you will be able to stand firm amid the storms.
Therefore, facing the last days, God’s calling to us is not to escape the world, but to build up the community; not to fight as isolated soldiers, but to watch over one another, love one another, and serve one another in the church.
I. It Is a Community That Watches Over One Another (v. 7)
1. Be self-controlled and sober-minded for prayer.
Peter reminds believers, “The end of all things is at hand.” The time to give an account is near. He is reminding them: you must fulfill the responsibility you ought to fulfill.
1) “Be self-controlled.”
The original meaning is “to remain rational, clear-minded, and restrained.” It means that whether a Christian is self-controlled depends on whether the person has restraint and discipline.
[Proverbs 25:28] “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.”
Therefore, lacking restraint and discipline means that one’s life has no protection, and then one will easily be swayed by all kinds of temptations and circumstances, and finally lose direction. Self-control is the internal capacity by which a Christian stays away from evil and temptation.
2) “Be sober-minded for prayer.”
Peter’s failure back then was precisely because he was not watchful in prayer, and so he entered into temptation.
[Matthew 26:40–41] And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Watchfulness and prayer are closely related, because true watchfulness must be maintained through prayer, and the power of prayer enables a person to continue being watchful.
Watchfulness without prayer is false watchfulness. A person whose prayer life is poor is insensitive to God’s guidance and to spiritual reminders, and is extremely likely to fall into the devil’s temptations.
2. Watch over one another.
Because Chinese Christians have been influenced by modern pietism, we place special emphasis on the individual’s relationship with God. When we understand “be self-controlled and sober-minded for prayer,” we mostly relate it to ourselves.
According to the phrase “above all” in the following verse, and according to the content of this whole passage, we can conclude that Peter is exhorting his readers from the perspective of a community. That is to say, the life of being self-controlled and sober-minded for prayer is completed within the church—I must not only watch over my own soul, but also watch over one another.
1) Why must we watch over one another?
Because in God’s plan of salvation, what will finally be taken up into heaven in the future is not merely individuals, but a people—the community of the church.
Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The gospel is the gospel of the kingdom. The plan of salvation begins with the individual, but finally develops into a kingdom.
Old Testament: Salvation moved from Seth, Noah, and Abraham, gradually developing from individuals into a nation, and finally completing the formation of the kingdom in the era of David’s dynasty.
New Testament: Salvation broke through the Jewish nation and became the gospel for all peoples. Beginning from the apostolic age, the gospel went from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
Future: “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready...” (Revelation 19:7–9)
The ultimate purpose of the plan of salvation is to bring the whole church into complete union with Christ. Salvation is by no means merely the salvation of isolated individuals.
Therefore, the Christian’s self-control and sober-mindedness for prayer are not only individual, but also communal.
2) The classical theological view of Christian sanctification emphasizes much more that sanctification is completed within the framework of ecclesiology, while the modern theological view of sanctification emphasizes much more an individualized view of sanctification with a weakened view of the church. How did this happen?
Example: A line from Ne Zha 2 says, “My fate is determined by me, not by heaven.” This reflects the modernist self-centered view of life.
The modernist self-centered view of life comes from the essence of fallen human natural life—the Tower of Babel, exalting the self.
Pastor Jonathan Chao said: There is no gospel that is not packaged by culture.
The contemporary church has been influenced by postmodern culture. It emphasizes the individual and weakens the church in its view of the gospel. It commonly dislikes the constraints of the church.
Such Christians are not responsible for their own souls; how then could they watch over others?
2) How do I watch over the brothers and sisters around me?
Not only must I be self-controlled for my own sake; for the sake of the brothers and sisters around me, I also need to be self-controlled, lest others fail to benefit because of me. Not only must I be watchful for my own sake; for the sake of the brothers and sisters around me, I also need to watch and pray for them often.
Example: The Important Second Book.
Summary: “The end of all things is at hand.” When we give an account in the future, God will judge: Have you been self-controlled for the sake of the brothers and sisters around you? Have you watched and prayed for the sake of the brothers and sisters around you?
II. It Is a Community That Loves One Another (vv. 8–9)
“Above all” means that we must “pay special attention.” Pay attention to what? Loving one another.
[John 13:34] “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.”
[1 John 2:7] “Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.”
The original meaning of “earnestly” refers to an athlete’s muscles being fully exerted in a race. If muscles are not exercised, they will atrophy. In the same way, if love is not practiced, the muscles of life will atrophy and become slack.
1. The expression of earnest love—“covering” (v. 8)
1) “Love covers a multitude of sins” does not mean that because I have love, my sin is covered by God. Rather, it means that when God’s love moves in our hearts, I will cover the offenses that others have committed against me.
Example: Noah became drunk, and Shem and Japheth...
This kind of covering means not publicizing another person’s sin. Therefore God blessed Shem and Japheth, while Ham was cursed by God because he publicized his father’s sin.
Example: The mother of James and John asked the Lord that, in the kingdom of God in the future... The other disciples heard this and became indignant. Compare this—
The request made by the mother of James and John revealed a worldly mindset.
The Lord Jesus pointed out their error: “You do not know what you are asking.” Then He said, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mark 10:38)
Facing the disciples’ error, on the one hand, the Lord Jesus sternly pointed out their sin—“You do not know what you are asking.”
At the same time, on the other hand, He expressed that He would cover their sin—“the cup that I drink,” “the baptism with which I am baptized.”
Meaning: He would bear the curse of the law on the cross for the proud and arrogant sin of these two men—treating sin and the sinner separately.
Look again at the reaction of the ten disciples: “they became indignant”—they mixed sin and the sinner together.
The reality in life is this: when we hate a person’s sin, we often hate the person together with the sin.
C. S. Lewis: Perhaps for a period of time your spiritual life has been fairly good. You often see some light and feel some stirring, and therefore you see all kinds of problems in others, and then you feel that you are better than others. Whenever we feel that we are not bad, or even superior to others, we have certainly been stirred up by the devil, not moved by God.
The point is this: the best way to test whether you have God’s presence is whether you feel yourself to be small and humble.
Love “covers” the faults of others, rather than using the errors of others to think highly of oneself.
2) Four levels of love.
The first level of love: law-like love.
[Mark 7:10–11] Moses said, “Honor your father and your mother...” But you say, “If a man tells his father or his mother, ‘Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban’” (that is, given to God).
“Corban” was a way of dedicating property. I could take my own property and designate it as “Corban,” to be used according to the will of the one who made the dedication. Originally, honoring one’s parents was the filial duty that Jews ought to fulfill. But through the dedication of “Corban,” the Jews turned it into a means of avoiding the responsibility of honoring their parents.
Example: When a church member is sick, one can go and do things without any feeling...
The spirit of the law is love. Giving without love is law-like giving, judged by external behavior.
The second level of love: family-affection-like love.
[Luke 6:32] “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.”
Common grace: every person has the need to love and to be loved. Its characteristic is either a blood relationship or an intimate relationship.
But this level of love has expectations and demands return. It is like this even among friends.
Therefore, once the expected return is not received, the relationship becomes distant, and may even break down.
The third level of love: righteous-and-benevolent love.
[Romans 5:7] “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.”
The story of Jing Ke’s assassination attempt against the King of Qin...
Therefore, people are generally willing to love those who are morally noble: loyal, generous, and kind.
Christians are like this too. They are especially willing to love those who are spiritual: devout, with good character.
But one day, when they discover blemishes, their love also gradually decreases, and they regret it.
The fourth level of love: redemptive love.
[Romans 5:8] “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
What is different from the previous three levels of love is God’s love.
Example: After Peter’s three failures, he went back to fishing and was discouraged.
After the Lord’s resurrection, He asked three times, “Do you love me more than these?” Did the Lord know?
The Lord did not scold Peter. He did not even say, “I forgive you.” The Lord said something that struck Peter even more deeply than “I forgive you”: “Feed my lambs.”
Some people, when others offend them, always need the other person to apologize before they can forgive in their hearts—this is immaturity of life.
If someone offends him, and he forgives without needing an apology, that is fullness of life. Christ is like this.
J. I. Packer: God’s completely realistic love for us is based on His knowing the worst about us.
When we love people, it is basically based on the fact that this person is worthy of love.
What is the secret of a changed life? It is this: from the depths of the soul, to feel Christ’s forgiveness and pardon toward me. Once we have experienced being forgiven, how could we not cover the sins of others?
In this world, we often see the strong bullying the weak: great nations bullying small nations, the strong oppressing the weak, the jungle law of “the weak are prey to the strong.”
However, the civilizational idea created by Christianity is that love is expressed through caring for the weak—care for women, children, the elderly, the weak, the sick, and the disabled.
Loving a strong person does not mean much. Only when a strong person chooses to love the weak, to sacrifice himself, and even when your condescension is despised by others, still humbly goes on loving—this is redemptive love. Redemptive love surpasses law and family affection; it surpasses righteousness and benevolence.
Reflection: What does our church rely on to attract the world to come among us? Truth. But truth is not cold and icy; it is manifested through love.
2. The expression of earnest love—hospitality (v. 9)
1) The early church: Preachers traveled everywhere proclaiming the gospel, or people fled because of persecution. Many people opened their homes to receive missionaries who had come from far away, or brothers and sisters who were fleeing persecution.
Example: Peter once stayed in the house of Simon the tanner (Acts 10:6).
As the saying goes: a near neighbor is better than a distant relative. If relatives do not fellowship for a long time, there will not be much family affection left, and by the next generation they will no longer know one another.
2) Christians have the need for life fellowship. Community life is a relationship of interaction with people.
Never fellowshipping with others is unhealthy. Only fellowshipping with a small number of people is also unhealthy.
3) However, wherever there is fellowship, there may be friction—the closer the relationship, the greater the possibility of friction.
Example: Different ideas, different personalities, and then friction arises. Once there is friction, complaints arise.
Therefore Peter says: “without grumbling.”
Summary: The second characteristic of community life is that it is a community that “loves one another.”
III. It Is a Community That Serves One Another (vv. 10–11)
A car: take apart its parts, then combine them into one body.
Many wrong views of the church are like coming to a dining table and looking for a table where everything has already been prepared.
The correct view of the church is this: coming into a kitchen, standing before the recipe, and working together with one another.
1. Each fulfilling his duty and mutually equipping one another (v. 10)
1) “As each has received a gift” shows that everyone has gifts.
The parable of the talents: five thousand, two thousand, one thousand; everyone has gifts.
Which kind of gift is most likely to bury the money? The one thousand. Why? Because the gift is not obvious, and so excuses are made.
Pay attention: although the gift of one thousand is small, it can still function. To hide it is wicked and lazy, and one will be judged in the future.
2) What is the purpose of gifts?
Paul says in another book, [Ephesians 4:12], “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”
The purpose of possessing gifts is not to accomplish your own career, but to serve others.
The gift of one thousand is easy to bury. Which kind of gift is easy to waste? The five thousand.
J. C. Ryle: People with few gifts but great zeal often do more work for the church than people with more gifts but less zeal.
In the church, often those with great gifts use all the abilities God has given them on their own careers.
Example: Having ability, being successful in one’s career, exercising oneself fully in the world, but never using it to serve the church—this is wasting gifts.
God’s purpose in giving you gifts is not to accomplish your worldly career, but to serve others.
3) Each fulfilling his duty and mutually equipping one another (v. 10)
“Use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
1) Gifts are varied—this shows that each person’s gifts are different.
Paul says in Romans 12, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.” Then he lists teaching, exhorting, contributing, leading, and doing acts of mercy.
Example: Speed and capacity for action—dealing with matters of governance; empathy in speech—those who exhort.
God has not caused one person to obtain all gifts. This shows that I need others to make up what is lacking in me.
When a person’s gift in one area is especially outstanding, he often appears especially lacking in other areas.
This is because the gifts God gives are diverse—teaching, exhorting, governing, caring.
The differences in gifts are not for boasting, but for mutual equipping, so that the body of Christ may be built up.
The more outstanding a person’s gift is in one area, and the more single his gift becomes, the more he needs others to make up what is lacking in him.
Therefore, every person should humbly acknowledge that he is limited. Do not exalt one particular gift. The gifts God gives to each person are different. Even more, you must not think that only your gift is important. Gifts mutually make up what is lacking; in this way, we are better trained to serve one another.
2) But the difficulty of “serving one another”—Chinese people find it difficult to work together. One Chinese person is a dragon; this shows a poor spirit of cooperation.
Generally speaking, those with greater gifts find it difficult to condescend to those with smaller gifts.
In this world, those with status always look down from above on the lowly and the small, standing high above them; those with low status flatter leaders in front of them.
Example: In a company...
However, “serving one another” in the gospel means this—the one with five thousand does not forbid you from helping the one with one thousand.
[Romans 12:16] “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.”
The fullness of life does not lie in how great your gifts are, but in this: even with very great gifts, you are able to make those who are not as gifted as you feel that you are not high above them; rather, it is as though a weak person is serving them.
The Lord Jesus said, “Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.” (Mark 10:44)
Example: Going to Thailand for a conference, a brother who had formerly been in the Youth Class of the University of Science and Technology of China...
The fullness of life is serving with life, and not merely serving with gifts. Through serving, life comes to know how fragile, how unable to withstand a single blow, the things I once took pride in really are: patience—impatience; broadness—narrowness of heart; the true self.
Brothers and sisters, on what basis can we serve God? Our service is imperfect. On what basis can it be accepted by God? Because of Christ.
Today, everything we do is incomplete. Yet God accepts it because of the Mediator.
2. One gift is especially mentioned—the one who speaks (v. 11)
“Whoever speaks” refers to the ministry of the word, including teaching, counseling, and all kinds of gifts related to the ministry of the word.
1) Why is the gift of speaking mentioned separately?
Because the human soul lives by the word of God: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but...” (Matthew 4:4)
2) Lord’s Day worship has many elements: prayer, singing, Scripture reading, and among them preaching.
Many modern churches place great emphasis on worship in song. But in Lord’s Day worship that truly conforms to the Bible, the central element is the proclamation of God’s Word. Worship in song is not the central element of Christian worship, and even the sacraments are not.
Many modern churches have removed the reading of Scripture from Lord’s Day worship and shortened the preaching time.
This is the age of miniature sermons. Miniature sermons can only build up miniature Christians.
3) There is a saying: the spiritual condition of a church will never rise above the pulpit of that church.
The Westminster Confession of Faith 14.1, on saving faith, says: “This faith is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word; by which also, and by the administration of the sacraments, and prayer, it is increased and strengthened.”
The Reformed means of grace are: the Word, the sacraments, and prayer. Among these, the Word refers especially to the hearing of the Word. The crucial point in the growth of a believer’s life is the receiving of God’s Word. From this we can see how important the gift of preaching is for a church.
Therefore, the primary work of a preacher in ordinary times is preparing sermons.
4) How should one preach? Peter says, “as one who speaks oracles of God.”
The requirement for Lord’s Day preaching in Reformed churches is expository preaching, preaching through a book of the Bible in order.
Expository preaching contains two most basic elements: interpretation and application.
If there is no interpretation, it is not exposition. If there is no application, it is not preaching.
5) After someone hears a sermon, he asks, “How did you feel today?”
Pastor John MacArthur said: “I want listeners, after hearing the sermon, to clearly understand what God’s Word requires of them.”
What is the best effect of listening to a sermon? After hearing the sermon, the feeling is: this is speaking about me.
Every sermon of a preacher presents a choice to the hearers: to resolve to practice and obey God’s Word; otherwise, it is rebellion.
If you come to church worship with a heart of worship, submitting yourself under God’s Word as you listen, then the process of listening to the sermon is the process of worshiping God. Your heart is driven by the words of Scripture, comforted and challenged.
[Matthew 5:6] “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
6) The result of “serving”: manifesting the glory of God.
“From him and through him and to him” (Romans 11:36)
[Conclusion]
Cuba and the United States are the same in terms of geographical location, people groups, natural resources, and so on. But there is a huge gap in social civilization, economics, and other areas.
Castro released all kinds of prisoners from prison—150,000 people—to Miami.
These people integrated into Miami society and became part of American civilized society.
Why? Because America has faith.
The atmosphere of the church is very important. It is the church culture. What is culture? A stranger who steps into the church for the first time may not yet have finished listening to the sermon, and may not yet understand the content of the Bible, but he can already sense among this people a certain different atmosphere—the reality of loving one another, solemnity in worship, humility in service, grace in speech, and sincerity between people.
Brothers and sisters, the last days are full of crises. God’s calling to us is not to fight as isolated soldiers, but to watch over one another, love one another, and serve one another in the church. May we strive to build a church with such an atmosphere.
1 Peter 4:7–11 1 Peter was written to people in persecuted churches; Peter reminds them that rejection and suffering are inevitable. Chapter 4 has a clear structure: in verses 1–6, Peter speaks of how believers will suffer for the sake of the gospel. Verse 6 flows more naturally into verse 12, but ... Read more
1 Peter 4:7–11
1 Peter was written to people in persecuted churches; Peter reminds them that rejection and suffering are inevitable. Chapter 4 has a clear structure: in verses 1–6, Peter speaks of how believers will suffer for the sake of the gospel. Verse 6 flows more naturally into verse 12, but Peter inserts verses 7–11, which address the life of the church. When a passage feels discontinuous with the surrounding context, it is clear that the author is making a deliberate and emphatic point. Peter is saying that persecution may cost people their lives, yet what ultimately matters is being able to stand before the judgment seat in the age to come — remaining faithful to the gospel under pressure. Peter's answer is this: what is needed is a healthy church community life. Christians constantly face the forces of the world; its culture and values exert pressure on faith. Whether one can withstand that pressure depends on whether there is a healthy church community life — whether there is a life of mutual love and mutual service.
The traditional Chinese conception of the church is that of a gathering. If the church is simply a place to gather, one gathering is as good as another. But the Reformed vision of the church is one of covenantal commitment — if the church is a genuine community, it can be more than conquerors. In this eschatological age, we cannot fight alone; we must draw our strength from brothers and sisters within the community.
I. A Community of Mutual Watchfulness
When I prepare sermons, I often find myself wondering: after all the effort that goes into preparation, how much do people actually retain? We ought to place greater emphasis on practice. When we stand before the Lord, He may say, "You did not put God's Word into practice."
It has been two thousand years since Peter wrote "the end of all things is at hand" — yet to the Lord, a thousand years are as a single day.
"Be self-controlled and sober-minded" — the Greek original carries the sense of restraint, rationality, and keeping oneself alert. Without self-control, there is no personal discipline or self-regulation; and without discipline, your life is left without protection. To scroll endlessly through short videos or lose yourself in games is to live like a city without walls — no clear boundary, no defense. Self-control and sobriety are the inward capacities that keep us from temptation and sin. Most Christians only recognize their sin after the fact, because many lack a vigilant spirit. In their minds there is no protective wall of self-awareness.
"Watch unto prayer" — true watchfulness is expressed through prayer. The discipline of prayer sustains ongoing vigilance. Prayer and watchfulness are like twins, like a glove and a hand. If someone claims to be watchful yet does not pray, that watchfulness is an illusion. The person who persists in prayer is truly watchful. How long do you pray each day? We often criticize the Catholic Church — this doctrine is wrong, that one is mistaken — yet in the realm of spiritual formation, Protestantism falls far short of Catholicism. We like to say we are more orthodox than the charismatic movement; should we not then do far better in the area of prayer? If you call yourself a member of a more orthodox church, ask yourself honestly: how long do you pray each day? Those who lack prayer are deeply insensitive in spirit and easily fall into sin. By the time a person has fallen into sin, their spirit has long since grown dim.
Why is the language mutual? Under the influence of modern pietism, many Chinese Christians pray in isolation; it is hard for us to conceive of what prayer has to do with the community. "Above all" — from this phrase we can draw a conclusion: Peter is instructing us from the perspective of community, because sober-mindedness and watchfulness are accomplished within the church. You must be self-controlled not only for your own sake, but for the sake of others. God's plan of salvation is aimed at building a kingdom — from Seth, to Abraham, gradually forming a people, and ultimately breaking beyond the Jewish nation until, from every tribe and tongue and nation, there is a wedding feast of the Lamb. Salvation was never meant to end with the individual; God is building a kingdom. Therefore, your vigilance and self-control are not merely personal matters — they are for the whole body.
The classical understanding of sanctification emphasized that it is accomplished within the church. Modern theological treatments of sanctification, however, largely operate within a framework that emphasizes the individual while marginalizing the church — Finney, Hudson Taylor, Brother Lawrence: nearly all of them speak of the individual's personal walk with God, rarely addressing sanctification within the framework of the church. This reflects the spirit of the postmodern age, which exalts the individual above all.
When Ne Zha 2 was released, the line "My fate is mine to command, not heaven's" swept across the country — is that not simply Nietzsche dressed up in Chinese costume? A Chinese pastor once said, "There is no gospel that is not packaged in culture," and I think he is absolutely right. For example, Chinese churchgoers feel it is only proper to dress formally for a service, while churches in Taiwan hold that women should wear skirts to be considered appropriately dressed. Many young people today resist any form of constraint: church membership requires examinations, interviews, and various commitments — and many simply walk away. We prefer to have our privacy completely and utterly respected. This is the influence of culture.
I once saw an article titled The Most Important Second Book, which caught my attention immediately. When I opened it, I found it was not about what I had expected. The article argued that every church has a membership directory, and every directory bears the names of its members. Therefore, the most important book is Scripture, and the second most important is the membership roll — and you should pray through that roll daily, lifting each person by name before God. I then asked the congregation: do you pray watchfully for one another? We always remember to pray for ourselves and our families — but do you, as Peter asks, keep watch in prayer for the brothers and sisters around you? When someone arrives late, we are quick to criticize — but before you criticize, how many times have you prayed watchfully for that person? You have no standing to point out another's fault if you have not. How many times have you prayed for the brothers and sisters beside you?
II. A Community of Mutual Love
Jesus declared mutual love to be a new commandment, and his disciples Peter and John both emphasize it in their letters. The word "earnestly" evokes the image of an athlete whose muscles are fully exerted in competition. Love is like athletic training: if it is not exercised, it atrophies. Mutual love must be practiced. How? Through covering. Love covers a multitude of sins. To cover is to refrain from broadcasting. When God's love moves within us, we will naturally cover the sins of others. Shem and Japheth walked backward and covered their father, while Ham did not cover his father's sin. One received blessing; the other received a curse. The mother of two of Jesus' disciples asked that her sons be given the seats of honor at his right and left hand. Jesus said, "Your heart is too worldly — you do not even know how worldly and misguided you are." He then spoke of the "cup" and the "baptism," referring to the cross. When the disciples revealed the sin of their hearts, Jesus, in the same breath that he named their sin, declared that he was going to the cross to cover it. When a person sins, the Lord both exposes the sin and bears the punishment for it. The other disciples reacted with anger. The Lord Jesus distinguished between the sin and the sinner, dying for the sinner. The other disciples hated the sin — and the sinner along with it.
In life, when we hate someone's sin, we tend to hate the person as well. When we point out another's fault, is there not some measure of contempt for the person themselves? C.S. Lewis said that whenever we feel superior — as though we are a cut above others — we have surely been stirred up by the devil. When someone offends you, do you feel diminished and small? Love, then, is covering another's fault — not using another's fault as a pedestal to elevate yourself.
There are four levels of love. The first is dutiful love — for example, honoring parents with money while doing nothing personally for them. A person can perform a good act with complete emotional detachment.
The second is affectionate love — love based on natural bonds. "If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you?" This kind of love is tied to kinship: you love your family, your friends. But affectionate love comes with expectations; when you love a friend, you expect something in return, and even between spouses or parents and children, there is an expectation of reciprocity. Once that return is withheld, the relationship grows cold and eventually breaks.
The third is moral love — love for the virtuous. "For a good person one would perhaps even dare to die." People naturally admire those of noble character; on social media everyone gives a thumbs up to someone who does something commendable. Many believers in the church love those who appear godly and upright. If someone goes to prison for the Lord's sake, many will rally around their family. But when people discover their flaws, that love fades.
The fourth is the love of God — God loved us while we were still sinners. The Lord did not ask Peter, "Why did you deny me?" He simply said, "Feed my sheep." When someone is wronged, they often require an apology before they will forgive. In a marital quarrel, reconciliation waits until one side relents. Yet when the Lord forgave Peter, he did not even require Peter's apology. J.I. Packer wrote that God loves us on the basis of his complete knowledge of us at our very worst. None of us is omniscient — if we were, we would all be crushed under the weight of despair. If someone offends you, if a former friend speaks ill of you behind your back — if everyone were all-knowing, no one would ever marry, have children, or make a friend, because you would foresee that this person will one day betray you, fail you, and you would spend your days in a paralysis of dread, incapable of love. Yet Packer says God loves us precisely on the basis of knowing us at our worst. Jesus knew long before that Peter would deny him — and yet he washed Peter's feet. How can a person who has experienced forgiveness at the depths of their soul fail to forgive others unconditionally? When you withhold forgiveness until the other person has humbled themselves, you are defying the law of God. The precious blood of the Lord Jesus has pardoned all your sins.
This world is one where the strong prey upon the weak. The weak have no voice before the powerful — only subordination. But Christian civilization is expressed in the strong serving and stooping to the weak: it is seen in how a community treats children, the disabled, and the vulnerable. If a church's culture cannot demonstrate its difference from the world, it is a false church. The culture of the church is a culture of love — a culture in which the strong feel no superiority before the weak, and are willing to stoop down. Anyone is willing to love someone strong; but when a strong person loves a weak person, when they sacrifice themselves — that is true love, the love of Christ. Christ is King, yet he humbled himself, came into the world as one who was weak, and said, "Father, forgive them." If you always present yourself as the strong one in your home, you are living without the gospel. A church like that is no true church.
III. A Community of Mutual Service
Love is not only expressed through covering — it is also expressed through hospitality. Many families opened their homes to believers fleeing persecution, and through that hospitality they found fellowship with one another. The final line of the Apostles' Creed is "I believe in the life everlasting," but the lines just before it declare "I believe in the communion of saints." If we only commune with a select few, that communion is false. Fellowship inevitably produces friction, because different habits and personalities give rise to complaint.
David, if I handed you a Lamborghini steering wheel — or Yufan, if I gave you a Maybach tire — neither would be of any use on its own. But assembled together, they become something wonderful. Many people choose a church the way they choose a meal: this one is appetizing, that one is not. If you select a church the way you select a restaurant, you will be changing churches forever. Choosing a church is more like joining a great chef in the kitchen to cook something delicious together. You have to roll up your sleeves and participate — to build up the church. Each person must discover the gifts they have received and serve one another through them. In Jesus' parable of the talents, the servant who received one talent is the one most tempted to bury it. Yet God says every person has been given gifts — at minimum, one talent's worth. Do not use excuses to evade this responsibility. Each one fulfills their part; together, the body of Christ is built up. On the other hand, the servant who received five talents is the one most prone to waste. Many people achieve great things in the world — they earn a great deal, they hold advanced degrees — but if you have been given so much, the question must be asked: what have you done with it in the church? If all five talents of your gifting are spent on the world, you are squandering what was given to you, because gifts are given to build up the body of Christ.
Peter calls us to be good stewards of God's varied grace — and every person's gifts are different. God has not given any one person every gift. The more prominent a person's gift in one area, the more lacking they will tend to be in another. There is a famous mathematician at Peking University who has become something of an internet celebrity, known as "Wei Shen." From what I can observe, besides mathematics, he may not be particularly capable at much else — it seems daily life itself might present him with real challenges. My point is: when someone's gift stands out in one area, they are likely to be genuinely deficient in another. Gifts are diverse; we are meant to serve one another and bear with one another.
Mutual service also comes with its difficulties. The greater the gift, the greater the temptation toward pride. When someone simply cannot learn to carry a tune no matter how much coaching they receive, the community must not look down on them — they must stoop down to meet them. There was a person we frequently asked to interpret; we called on him whenever it was convenient, without a second thought. It was only later that we discovered he was an exceptionally gifted man — he had completed his doctorate at a very young age and was serving as a senior executive at a major company. He came to faith and committed himself to giving his life to the Lord's service. He was too modest to speak of his past. All of us who serve have our flaws; our service is like soiled garments. And yet all our service passes through the one Mediator before the Father.
The United States has Cuba as its neighbor. Cuba is rich in natural resources, yet the gap between Cuba and America in terms of economy and civilization is vast. There was once a leader named Castro who spent his years opposing the United States but could never prevail. He devised a plan: he sent 150,000 hardened criminals to Miami, calculating that they would throw American society into chaos. Instead, every one of those 150,000 became a functioning member of Miami society. Because of their environment, they were transformed.
The theme of our sermon is "The Eschatological Community," and the atmosphere and culture of the church matter enormously. A stranger walking through the doors of a church for the first time may not know a single name in the room — but they can sense an atmosphere entirely unlike anything the world offers: the reality of mutual love, the reverence in worship, the humility in service, the grace in speech. That is what a spiritual community is. We live in a time of pressure and persecution. How do we stand firm? We stand together — growing in a community of mutual love and mutual service.