love covers many sins

In this meditation from By Faith Alone, Martin Luther considers 1 Peter 4:8, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

Here, Peter builds upon a passage from the book of Proverbs: “Hate starts quarrels, but love covers every wrong” (Proverbs 10:12). And this is what Peter means: If you don’t restrain your sinful nature and desires, you will easily become angry with others. You will be unable to forgive others easily. So make sure you curb your evil desires. Then you will be able to love and forgive others, for love covers sin.

Solomon is saying whoever hates another person doesn’t stop quarreling and bickering. But wherever love is, it covers sin by gladly forgiving it. Where there is anger, you will find a defiant person who won’t reconcile and remains full of hatred. On the other hand, a person full of love doesn’t become angry no matter how much someone tries to offend him. He covers all these sins and pretends not to see them. Though he can overlook his neighbor’s sin, he cannot make God overlook it. No one can cover his own sin before God. Only faith can do that. But with our love, we can cover our neighbor’s sin. And just as God covers our sins with his love if we believe, so we should also cover our neighbor’s sin. Peter says that we should love one another so that one person can cover the sin of another. Love doesn’t cover just one, two, or three sins, but a whole multitude of sins.

Here’s what I like about this: first, Luther makes clear that my sinful reactions, in particular my anger, will only prolong problems, but walking in love will end conflict. This brings to mind Proverbs 19:11, “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” That one’s worth reading over again and meditating on. We can feel weak or taken advantage of when we overlook an offense, particularly if we do so in front of others. I was on the Men’s Health web site yesterday, and they had a short survey about how men respond to conflict. One of the questions asked if a man was more likely to take action (like throwing a punch) because of an insult if others were watching–I suspect for many men the answer would be yes. Solomon, who undoubtedly had opportunities to overlook offense, tells us that it our glory not to retaliate. That’s good!

Second, Luther reminds me that God is covering my sins with His love. For those of us who struggle with the mistaken notion that our sins are hanging around and that God is always restraining Himself from giving us a good slap upside the head, Luther says, “No!” God loves us so much that He covers our sins and embraces us when we fail.

Tagged as: anger, forgiveness, love, Martin-Luther, offense, Peter, relationships, sin, Solomon