15. Above All
In their letters, Peter and Paul both stress the same thing …
Nowadays, when we write something we want to stress we can underline the words we feel are important or put an *asterisk next to them. If the words are printed or on a screen we can put them in bold, italic, or even color type. If the words are on paper we can highlight them with pens or markers.
The New Testament writers did not have any of these options, of course. In the ancient Greek the early Christians used, stressing something involved the words themselves – the order in which they were written or the use of key words to draw attention to important things. That's why the Bible frequently uses expressions like "remember" or "take heed." But in the New Testament the most powerful expression the writers used to highlight something was "Above all.…" That expression was the nearest thing to a red marker pen the apostles could use! Just as we might use a marker to highlight only the very most important text in a book, the biblical authors used "Above all …" very sparingly – in fact, only three times regarding matters of Christian behavior in the whole New Testament. Using slightly different expressions in the Greek language, but all meaning the same thing, three apostles each wrote "Above all…" on one occasion in their respective writings.
In his epistle, the apostle James tells his readers "Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear …" (James 5:12), but in this instance the "above all …" is regarding a specific group of problems that James was addressing.
That leaves us with only two times in the New Testament when the expression "Above all …" was used more widely of our conduct and responsibilities as disciples of Jesus. One of the two times "Above all …" is used in this general and all-encompassing manner is found in the first epistle of Peter. The apostle tells us "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). We might almost say that Peter saved his red highlighter for this one thought!
Notice too, that Peter tells us to love "earnestly" and the Greek word means fervently, intensely, strongly. It is not enough to love, he says, we must love in the extreme. And if we do, Peter says, we "cover a multitude of sins." It is not entirely clear whether he meant that we cover over the sins of others when we love them, or that when we love others this covers our own sins. Perhaps both meanings are intended!
The only other instance of "Above all…" regarding our behavior is found in Colossians 3 where, beginning in verse 12, Paul gives the Colossian Christians a list of things that we must "put on" in our Christian lives. Paul lists the most important traits that we can manifest – traits such as compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. He then brings this list of Christian virtues to a close with the following words: "And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Colossians 3:14).
We should not read this "Above all …" as a simple figure of speech. Paul stressed the supremacy of love many times in his writings and especially, of course, in 1 Corinthians 13:13 where he tells us of faith, hope and love that "… the greatest of these is love.…" That is the doctrine of love. In Colossians 3:14, Paul gives us the practice: "Above all these put on love.…" The same apostle who gave us one of the Bible's most memorable verses in 1 Corinthians 13:13 gave us one of the Bible's most urgent commands in Colossians 3:14.
So we should not miss the fact that when the apostles Peter and Paul use the most powerful manner they had of stressing something in their writing, they both use that "highlighting" method to stress the same thing – the importance of love. Above all, Peter, Paul and other New Testament writers tell us, we must love one another. Nothing the Bible tells us about our day-to-day relationships with each other is more important than that.