Paint With Love

I Peter 4:8 (NIV)  “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.”

There’s an amazing product on the market to help cover unsightly blemishes on walls and surfaces.  This product is called Kilz.  If you have an interior or exterior wall or ceiling which has something on it that regular paint will not cover, this product will be your best help to resolve your issue.  The label reads, “Kilz is a fast drying, water-based multi-purpose primer, sealer and stain blocker that has a very mild odor and blocks out most light stains including water, rust, grease, ink, pencil and felt marker.”  This reminds me of the verse in I Peter where the writer is encouraging Christians to exhibit ‘deep’ love for one another, because love covers all kinds of sin.  Just like Kilz will cover all kinds of stains, love acts like a multi-purpose primer, sealer and stain blocker!

There’s no better biblical description of love than the scripture in Ephesians 13, fondly referred to as ‘the love chapter’.   The Message Bible gives a great understanding to the first three verses in this chapter and the New Living Translation gives the clearest understanding of verses 4-8.

Ephesians 13:1-3 (The Message)  “If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.  If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all His mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.  If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere.  So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.”

Ephesians 13:4-8 (New Living Translation)  “Love is patient and kind.  Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.  It does not demand its own way.  It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance…love will last forever!”

There is no greater love than the love that God the Father has shown to us, in that He gave His only Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice for us, so that we can be made righteous and be saved.  The blood of His dear Son covers our sins.  Revelation 1:5 “…unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”  Likewise, when we have love for others, and the kind of love that is described in this scripture only comes with the empowerment of God Almighty, we show the goodness of God.  There is a time to speak the truth of God, but only with love as the motivation, otherwise it will not display God’s character.  We can’t lead people to repentance, only the goodness and kindness of God’s love draws people to God.

Romans 2:4 (God’s Word Translation)  “Do you have contempt for God, who is very kind to you, puts up with you, and deals patiently with you?  Don’t you realize that it is God’s kindness that is trying to lead you to him and change the way you think and act?”

We need to paint with Kilz when there are stains on our walls, and we need to love one another when there are stains on our sisters and brothers!