Does Love Really Cover a Multitude of Sins?
By Lynette Kittle
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” - 1 Peter 4:8
God tells us to love each other deeply, but what does that mean? How do we accomplish this in our lives? And how is love strong enough to cover a multitude of sins? Through Jesus coming to earth, death, and resurrection, we can experience how His love covers a multitude of sins. Through His life and sacrifice, our multitude of sins is covered and wiped away. And God doesn’t just overlook sin or put it on the back burner to remind us later but removes it completely from our lives and our identity. As Psalm 102:12 explains, “As the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Who Is Covering Whom?
So how does loving each other cover a multitude of sins? Often in reading this verse, we tend to think it’s talking about our love covering another person’s multitude of sins. But what if it’s referring to what happens to our own sin when we love others?
What if loving others isn’t about covering those we’re loving sins but rather more about covering our own sins? Perhaps in choosing to love each other, our own sins are being covered and washed away by the love of God. Revelations 1:5 describes, “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood.”
Because He is love when we live in love, we are moving in Him. As 1 John 4:16 explains, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” Likewise, Acts 17:28 describes, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
The Difference Between Unbelievers and Believers
Without God’s love within hearts, loving others isn’t really possible. There is no other source of love, and because there isn’t, is why the earth is experiencing such loveless conditions because “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8).
2 Timothy 3:2-5 describes what is happening in our world today. “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”
Because a lack of love marks an unbeliever’s life, Christians often don’t realize the importance of loving each other. God’s love marks us in the world as believers in Jesus Christ. “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).
Let Love Be Our Witness
Even unbelievers in their unbelief recognize a lack of love when they see Christians attacking one another, fighting amongst themselves, maligning and expressing all kinds of unloving attitudes towards each other. Loving one another is what we’re commanded to do, setting us apart from the world and drawing those who are unsaved to desire God’s love in their lives, too. If we aren’t living it out, then we want to repent of our lack of love and ask God to fill us with His love so that we can love each other and be His witnesses in the world. Romans 5:5 explains how God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. He has already placed His love within us to love others.
Intersecting Faith and Life:
How is your love life? Are you finding it easy to love others? If not, ask God to fill your heart with His love and help you to extend godly love to those around you.
Further Reading:
30 Bible Verses About Love—Loving Scripture Quotes
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/Natali_Mis
Lynette Kittle is married with four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today’s Christian Woman, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and more. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent University and serves as associate producer for Soul Check TV.
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