1 Peter 4:8
Verse eight
The word “charity” is the translation of the Greek word speaking of God’s love (John 3:16), the love produced in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5; Gal. 5:22). The word today refers to the act of alleviating the necessities of the poor. The Greek word has no such idea in it. The Greek word here translated “fervent” means literally “stretched out.” The idea is that of a love that is extended to reach the one loved. It is the act of one who, instead of living a self-centered life, gives of himself to others. The word means here, “intent, earnest, assiduous.” “Have among yourselves” is literally “having (love) toward one another.”
The words “above all” are more properly “before all in order of importance.” That is, love is a prerequisite to all proper exercises of Christian duty. Courtesy without love is a cold thing. Generosity without love is a harsh thing. Love makes all the other virtues what they should be. The reason for this exhortation to love one another is that love covers a multitude of sins. That is, when one Christian truly loves his fellow Christian, he will not publish abroad his failings, but will cover them up from the sight of others. How much gossip is eliminated when we love each other.
1 Peter 4:8
Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 115.
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