1Peter 4:8 - How So?

 

Love is a powerful agent of change. Love comforts. Love heals. Love brings hope. Love strengthens and perseveres. Words of love calm and bring peace.

1Peter 4:8 says this of love; “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.”

Peter is writing about relationships within community. Earlier in his letter, Peter was writing about Jesus as the ultimate expression of love and how He is our example of how to love one another. He writes about the messiness of a faith community living in the midst of others who do not share the same values. It is in this context that he exhorts his reader to love one another fervently. Giving them the challenge of verse 4:8.

How does love cover sin?...even a multitude of sin!? Peter has written about Jesus earlier and he will again in the verses that follow. But here in verse 8, he is definitely addressing inter-personal relationships.

I think Peter says this because love is messy between people. We hurt one another, sometimes repeatedly in the same ways, even when we love them. Often times the pain we cause is unintentional and we hurt those we love without realizing it. Other times we know and still we make the wrong choice. We have all fallen short of the expectations of someone we love. We get tired, grumpy or mean. Even when we love someone, we are still selfish at times and don’t always prioritize the other person and their needs. Even when people love one another, there is need for confrontation, forgiveness, comfort, healing and the re-building of trust. These steps of resolution and restoration are only possible with love.

Over all the strengths and weaknesses, there is the choice to love. Over the good choices that uplift and strengthen one another as well as the poor choices that weaken and hurt one another, there is the covering of love. Over judgement, over selfishness, jealousy, pride and anxiety there is the possibility of love.

We choose to love.

We give love and receive love.

We allow the work of love to have its effect.

Love can cover a multitude of sin.

The power of love to heal and restore sets it apart. 

Love can heal and restore the broken places in relationships. When we choose to love, we choose to hope and build for the future. Love can heal the brokenness in relationships and cause it to become a strengthened foundation for future health.

I see 1Peter 4:8 as a statement of the power of love and the potential it has to transform and build relationships. There are many agents of destruction in relationships; but love is greater and can well cover them. Love builds and changes. It transforms and renews. 

Love covers a multitude of sins!