Digging Deeper – Love Covers
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8 (ESV)
LOVE COVERS
Peter promotes love as the primary trait we should display in our relationships with other believers. The reason, Peter explains, is that love covers a multitude of sins. This does not mean that love ignores, overlooks, or tries to hide sin. Instead, Peter probably was thinking back to his words in 4:1–2 that believers should live the rest of their lives according to God’s will and not human desires. As believers, they were “finished with sin.” The “covering of sins” is the believer’s ability to forgive one another because Christ has forgiven them. Remember Peter’s conversation with the Lord: “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?” “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22, CSB).
In the early days of television, there was a sitcom in which two characters discussed an acquaintance who had the annoying habit of slapping his friends across the chest whenever they met. “I’ve got a solution,” said one character to the other. “I put a stick of dynamite in my vest pocket, and the next time he slaps me, he is going to get his hand blown off.” He hadn’t bothered to think the dynamite would hurt him more than his friend.
Pastor and author David Jeremiah says, “An unforgiving spirit is like that. The Bible tells us to beware of the root of bitterness that can spring up and defile many. Jesus told us to be quick and frequent forgivers. His phrase ‘seventy times seven’ wasn’t intended to give us a literal count, but to convey an ongoing attitude.” Whenever someone hurts us, we can either hold on to the grudge or process it on our knees, releasing the bitterness and leaving the matter in God’s hands. In other words, don’t walk around with dynamite in your pocket. Are you withholding forgiveness from someone who has hurt you in some way? How do you speak about this person? Spend a few moments thinking about the benefits of forgiving someone and how that outweighs holding a grudge against someone. Praise God for being a God who forgives. Thank Him for forgiving you of all your sins – past, present, and future – through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
Steve Roach serves as the Pastor of Spiritual Maturity at NorthStar Church. He and his wife, Amy, live in Acworth and have three girls, Olivia, Sydney, and Hayley and one son, Colton. He enjoys watching sports and spending time with his family.
