Keep Loving One Another

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins.

 1 Peter 4:8

As I was preparing to write this, I decided to look at the Greek and found an interesting tidbit. Peter tells us to “Keep loving one another” since love ”Covers” a multitude of sins. The Greek word for “cover” also means to hide or conceal. Now when I think “cover,” I think of something like placing a blanket over a pile of clothes.  While you can’t tell what’s under the blanket, you still know that there is something under the blanket. However, when I think conceal, I think about a women’s makeup item known as a concealer and how the concealer is designed to hide the blemish.  The purpose of applying concealer is to hide the blemish, so no one knows that it is there.  So, in essence, Paul is telling us that when we keep loving one another, it conceals our sins to the point we can no longer see the blemish in our lives.  Love doesn’t just cover up our sins. It conceals and hides our blemishes so that we no longer know that it is there.

Likewise, in Ephesians 4:32, we are told to keep “forgiving one another. As God in Christ forgave you,” The word forgiving means to “cancel” or “pardon,” generally to forgive and not punish one for their sins.

In Colossians 3:13, we are told, “if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive,”  The Greek word for “forgiving” is the same as in Ephesians, which means to “cancel” or “pardon” generally to forgive and not punish one for their sins.  Yet Paul also adds, “as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive.”

In Psalms 103:12, we are told, “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.”  David tells us that our sin has been removed from us as far as the east is from the west.  Our sin can not be seen at that distance. It has been effectively concealed.  Our sin has been canceled and pardoned.  And this is what we are supposed to do.  God shows compassion to those who fear him. Just as a father shows compassion to his children

I also want to point out that in none of these passages has the wrongdoer been asked to do anything before the person being wronged is instructed to forgive.

When we Love, we are able to conceal, hide, and cover the sin against us. When we have a complaint against someone, we are to be forgiving, in essence, cancel the debt and pardon the wrongdoer.  Just as God has forgiven us through his son.

Forgiveness is hard, but it is also commanded.  I am not saying this is easy. I am saying that we must love and forgive just as Christ loves and forgives us.