Love covers a multitude of sins

Read 1 Peter 4:7-11

Where do you go from the greatest of these is Love?  What else do you need from the scriptures once you receive the counsel to love your enemies?  Have we not fulfilled the law when we live governed by love?

So, what is this love covers a multitude of sins business?

I know that I contend with an age where so many people read their Bible in the in the NFT—the New Facebook Translation. I know that this is an age of eisegesis—putting what you want to believe into the holy scriptures.  I know this is an age where so many do not want to hear the truth.

The truth is just not that popular anymore.

But some things that are clearly in the Bible just don’t seem to jive, at least at first glance.  James and Peter both use the words from the Proverbs, love covers a multitude of sins.

But John records the encounter between John the Baptist and Jesus as he approached the part of the Jordan where all the baptizing seemed to be taking place with these words:  Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

John in his letters again confirms to us that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from our sin—from all unrighteousness.  I don’t know of any Christians who are offended by this verse.  Even the biggest Type-A personality at some point realizes I can’t fix myself by myself.  Thank you, Jesus, for what you did for me on the cross.

You cleansed me.  You took away my sin.  You made me right with God.  Hallelujah!  Amen!  Praise the Lord!

Even David knew that it took divine intervention to cleanse him.  Create in me a clean heart.  I cannot cleanse what I have made filthy by myself.

This is not a controversial topic among Christians.  The Lamb of God took away our sins.  Because of the completed work on the cross, sin and death have no say in where we spend eternity.  We belong to God.  We are brothers and sisters in Christ.  God’s Spirit lives within us.

So, what in the world is this business about covering a multitude of sins.  Is it just figurative language to say the same thing as taking away the sin of the world?  Is it a metaphor that says multitude but means all?  Is it no big deal?

Let’s briefly visit the Greek.  The original text uses a word that was used more in the poetry than the prose of the age.  The word is καλύπτω – kaluptó (kal-oop'-to). 

It means to cover or wash over or conceal.  It is to veil something.  The problem is that too many people read this thinking it veils or conceals something from God.  Many think that such scriptures tells us that our sin is hidden from God.

Consider this odd dichotomy.  The Lamb of God took away our sin and our love hides our sin from God.  Those are hard to reconcile, especially when we know that nothing is hidden from God.

So where does that leave us?  First let’s put this verse in context.  Peter tells his readers:

·       Realizing we don’t know how much time we have left, let’s proceed with clear minds and self-control. Let’s live according to the purpose God gave us.

·       Love each other deeply.

·       Offer hospitality without grumbling.

·       Use our God-given gifts to serve others.

·       Live out God’s grace in the ways the Lord has given you.

·       Be wise in your speech.  People will regard what you say as words from God, unless they are playing for the other team and want to twist them but be wise in your speech nonetheless.

·       Don’t rely on your own strength but on God’s so that God will receive the glory.

All of these things we know and do and sometimes don’t get right the first time or the first 100 times are all to bring glory to God as we follow Jesus.

All of these things fall into a category that we might call love one another.  Those in this body here have heard those words a few hundred times a year.  We have given out wristbands world-wide that say:  GOD LOVES YOU – LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

So as I look at these words that tell me that love covers a multitude of sins, I need to ask, “From whom are they concealed?”

We can’t hide anything from God.  So if the holy scriptures are to truly be in agreement—and they are—then these sins are concealed from a person.  Who is that person?

I am going to ask you to think on and meditate on that the person in question is us.  Remember the challenges that love presents to us.  Love your enemies.  Love is patient.  Here’s one that might seem even more difficult.

Love keeps no record of wrongs.  That one might be even tougher than loving your enemies or practicing patience.  Those who have wronged us are often recorded in our hard drives.  Some wrongs are written into the BIOS or the firmware of our hearts and minds.

We forgive but we don’t forget.  I’m keeping the lesson.  It sounds so sensible not to forget what happened when we were wronged.  But our model is that God forgives and forgets.  He remembers our sins no more.

I can love my enemies.  It takes work, but I can do it.

I can be patient.  I don’t have time to be patient, but I can be patient if I put my mind to it, especially when I know it is what love requires of me.  I just want to be patient and get it over with.

But I don’t know if I can forget everyone who has wronged me.  I don’t know if I can erase the hard drive.  I can be patient because I do something to be patient.  I can love my enemies because I resolve in my mind and bring my heart into that accord, and because I have set my heart and mind on it, I can do it.  I can love my enemy.

But how do I deal with a record of wrongs that is permanently etched in my mind with anchors set in my heart?

Yes, I know that with God all things are possible.  I know that through Christ Jesus who gives me strength, I can do all things, but this record of wrongs stuff is just too hard to manage, at least some of the time.

It seems like I have forgotten every wrong against me, then for no particular reason, that file is fully restored and comes front and center into my thinking.

Maybe, I am just not to the point where I can truly erase that hard drive of wrongs.  But love covers a multitude of sins.  What if the sins covered—concealed—are that record of wrongs that I won’t let go of or just can’t seem to get rid of?

What if while I am growing in faith and living out my salvation, concealing the sins against me from my heart and mind, let’s me grow in God’s grace.

One day, I truly want to forget.  But as I move towards that day, love may just keep those wrongs out of my heart and mind, so I can live out this life governed by love.

When I live a life of love, love reciprocates with this wonderful thing.  It covers over those sins made against me as if I was able to discard that record of wrongs.

OK, I might buy that, but I want to make sure this isn’t some screwball interpretation.  So, let’s consider the proverb.  It preceded what Peter and James had to say by 800 to 1000 years.

Hatred stirs up strife,

But love covers all sins.

That was the New King James which is the same as the original King James save the verbs stirrith and covereth.  Here the same verse in the Amplified Version.

Hatred stirs up strife,

But love covers and overwhelms all transgressions [forgiving and overlooking another’s faults].

The Message offers this translation.

Hatred starts fights,

but love pulls a quilt over the bickering.

Nothing is hidden from God so the covering or concealing or overlooking is what happens to us when love governs.

The proverb tells us that left to our human nature, we fight back when we are wronged.  Hate governs the unrepentant heart.  We fight back.  We get even.  Remember Lex Talionis—an eye for an eye.  That was an improvement over what preceded it, which was essentially the unwritten human law of escalation.

But love overlooks.  Love does not consider the wrong done against us as something to take center stage in our lives.

The Lamb of God took away our sin but we still must contend with judging—not the kind that keeps us from making bad decisions, but kind that is condemning of others—as we live out our salvation.

We have been wronged by many.  We have forgiven many, but not keeping a record of wrongs, that some tough stuff.  Until that day when we see clearly and are clearly seen, we might just need some help concealing the sins that others have committed against us from our own hearts and minds.

One day, we will get to where we can forgive and forget.  It may or may not happen in these bodies.  It’s a tall order for sure.

But love—which Paul reminded us never fails—will help us negotiate and navigate this toughest of tasks, even if it must conceal the wrongs against us from us, until our Christian maturity is ready to put them away for good.

Jesus lived a fully human life for about 3 decades.  He was wronged many times.  On his way to the cross, the record of wrongs against him was incomprehensible; yet, he spoke from the cross asking forgiveness for those who were murdering him.  “Father, forgive them.  They know not what they do.”

Our Father in heaven not only forgives us but forgets our sins as well.  That’s our goal as well—forgive and forget.

Why, was it important to spend a little time on this piece of scripture?  We understand our counsel.  Love our enemies.  Be patient.  Fulfill the law by living a life governed by love.  Why do we need this nugget on love covering a multitude of sins?

Because keeping no record of wrongs might cause us to throw in the towel.  We might just say, “What’s the point?  Nobody can do this.  God wants too much from me.”

Keeping no record of wrongs probably does fall into the bridge too far category, at least for now.  But we want to please God by living a life of love.

How can we renew our mind, when the record of wrongs against us won’t give way?

How can we love our neighbor, when some of those neighbors have hurt us badly and we can’t forget that?

How can we be patient, when our human mind is thinking about getting even?

They say that pitchers and quarterbacks have short memories.  They don’t.  That interception is a memory that won’t go away.  The pitch that is now an upper deck souvenir is a moment forever frozen in the mind of the man on the mound.

They can’t truly forget them right away, but they learn to cover over those memories so they can throw the next pitch or start the next series ready to score.

We as disciples of Jesus Christ need to grow in grace.  We learn to tithe and give generously.  We learn to serve others.  We learn to seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit.  We pray and listen for God.  We trust God more and more each day.  We even learn to do this when our own understanding tells us something else.

We are growing in God’s grace.  We have learned to forgive but keeping no record of wrongs is just too tough for us now.  We try.  We think that we have set aside this record of sins against us, then in a moment that file is fully restored.

But we desire so much to be people of light and of love.  We want to please our Lord and Savior and Master.  We do.

So, when we set out each day to live a life of love, love does a wonderful thing for us.  It covers over the record of wrongs made against us.  It helps us grow in all of those other areas while we wait for perfection to come.

And one day, that day will come when we can forgive and forget.  The day will come when we realize that the eternity of living that is set before us is so much greater than any way in which we had been wronged in the life that is behind us.

Until that day—whether it comes in theses bodies or with the Lord—we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and do our best to live lives of love, letting love do the work of covering a multitude of sins, not hiding them from God but from ourselves so that they do not stagnate our growth.

Thanks be to God that love does for us what our own hearts and minds cannot.

Amen.