Love Covers a Multitude of Sins What does Peter mean when he says “Love covers a multitude of sins” in I Peter 4:8? In context, Peter is talking about interpersonal relationships among Christians in the church. He is calling us to a dual kind of grace toward others. 1. First, we should SHOW GRACE by being SLOW TO CONVICT. I Corinthians 13 tells us that love “patient, kind, long-suffering ….thinks no evil.” When we love each other we practice charity with each other. We assume the best about others, assigning the best of motives to their actions. Many times, we are unwilling to call sin sin. People label us as selfish, dangerous, unwise or shameful. And vice versa, we call anything that is not up to our standard sin. Then people label us Pharisee, legalistic, small-minded, arrogant and ungracious. Sin, though, is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. Let’s not forget that we fall into sin all the time. Jesus said, “ ….. the measure that you use in judging others” will be use to measure you as well. 2. The second kind of grace that Peter calls us to here is to NOT even bother to deal with every sin in a given relationship. Here we are, redeemed, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, heaven bound, but we still sin against each other. Peter calls us here to not sweat the “small stuff.” Note, however, that he recognizes that the small stuff is still sin. The text doesn’t say, “Love covers a multitude of unwise, selfish, arrogant, shameful decisions.” Consider smoking. Is addiction to nicotine a sin? We easily criticize people who smoke but what about the chemical stimulant of choice of many Christians, coffee (or soda); Is addiction to coffee a sin? We are called to not let anything rule over us, and for sure many Christians are ruled over by coffee and some Christians are ruled over by nicotine. We don’t get bothered being addicted to coffee ourselves but when we see people smoke, we doubt whether they know the Lord or not. What about Christians who eat dinuguan? Should we get their attention and tell them that the Bible forbids eating blood? Now remember that many of the food that we enjoy eating are forbidden in the Bible? Now, what about people being HABITUALLY LATE? When we are late in worship service, Bible Study, prayer meeting, church meeting, etc…(something that we would not do at work) WE ARE: a. Not keeping our word (considered a LIE) b. Stealing time from those we keep waiting (STEALING) c. Doing unto others what we don’t want …..(violation of the Golden Rule d. And very likely, thinking of ourselves more highly than others (PRIDE). So should we then apply the discipline principle of Matthew 18? Probably not. What we ought to likely do is plan around the late people or move on without them. What we certainly do is continue to love the HABITUAL LATECOMERS even as we continue to love the COFFEE ADDICTS and even NICOTINE ADDICTS. When we are wronged our calling is to practice a careful moral evaluation. Ask yourself, “Is this offense one I should let go of? Is it among the multitude that love covers? Or is this offense grievous enough that love means confronting in grace my brother or sister?” Sadly what we usually do is think we are “covering” while actually holding grudges and fertilizing the roots of bitterness. Peace in the church calls us to UNDER-ACCUSE, OVER-REPENT AND OVER-FORGIVE. Let us not be afraid to call sin sin, but let us not be slow to forgive it and to look past it.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 06:55:30 +0000
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