Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs.
Parallel Translations
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Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs.
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Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.
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Hatred stirreth up strifes; but love covereth all transgressions.
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Proverbs 10:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Peter 4:8 And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins.
- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
- Proverbs 17:9 He who covers an offense promotes love; but he who repeats a matter separates best friends.
- Proverbs 15:18 A wrathful man stirs up contention, but one who is slow to anger appeases strife.
- James 5:20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
- James 4:1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?
- Proverbs 16:27 A worthless man devises mischief. His speech is like a scorching fire.
- Proverbs 28:25 One who is greedy stirs up strife; but one who trusts in Yahweh will prosper.
- Proverbs 29:22 An angry man stirs up strife, and a wrathful man abounds in sin.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 10:12 Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth…
Pro 10:12 Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.
Ver. 12. Hatred stirreth up strifes.] Especially when hatred is grown from a passion to a habit, which is, when the heart is so settled in an alienation and estrangement from the person hated, that it grows to wish, and desire, and seek his hurt. I could like that exposition well if it were not Calvin’s, said Maldonat; and that reformed religion, if Luther had not had a hand in it, said George Duke of Saxony.
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But love covereth all sins.] {See Trapp on "1Pe 4:8"} {See Trapp on "1Co 13:4"} Love hath a large mantle. If I should find a bishop commitring adultery, said Constantine the Great, I would cover that foul fact with mine imperial robe rather than it should come abroad to the scandal of the weak and the scorn of the wicked. {a} Love either dissembleth a trespass, if it be light, or by a wise and gentle reproof seeks to reclaim the offender, claps a plaster on the sore, and then covers it with her hand, as we have seen chirurgeons do. {See Trapp on "Lev 19:17"} Lutherus commodius sentit quam loquitur, dum effervescit, said Cruciger. So Melanchthon, Sciebam horridius scripturum Lutherum quam sentit. The sayings, doings of others, are reverenter glossanda, to have a reverent, a fair, and favourable gloss put upon them, as one said once of the pontifician laws. This is love.
{a} Eusebius.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Hatred stirreth up strifes upon every slight occasion, by…
Hatred stirreth up strifes upon every slight occasion, by filling men with suspicions and surmises, whereby they imagine faults where there are none, and aggravate every small offence.
Love covereth all sins; either doth not severely observe, or doth willingly forget and forgive, the offences or injuries of others, and so preventeth contention and mischief.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here is, 1. The great mischief-maker, and that is…
Here is, 1. The great mischief-maker, and that is malice. Even where there is no manifest occasion of strife, yet hatred seeks occasion and so stirs it up and does the devil's work. Those are the most spiteful ill-natured people that can be who take a pleasure in setting their neighbours together by the ears, by tale-bearing, evil surmises, and misrepresentations, blowing up the sparks of contention, which had lain buried, into a flame, at which, with an unaccountable pleasure, they warm their hands. 2. The great peace-maker, and that is love, which covers all sins, that is, the offences among relations which occasion discord. Love, instead of proclaiming and aggravating the offence, conceals and extenuates it as far as it is capable of being concealed and extenuated. Love will excuse the offence which we give through mistake and unadvisedly; when we are able to say that there was no ill intended, but it was an oversight, and we love our friend notwithstanding, this covers it. It will also overlook the offence that is given us, and so cover it, and make the best of it: by this means strife is prevented, or, if begun, peace is recovered and restored quickly. The apostle quotes this, Pe1 4:8. Love will cover a multitude of sins.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Hatred stirreth up strifes,.... A man, whose heart is…
Hatred stirreth up strifes,.... A man, whose heart is full of hatred and malice against his neighbour, will stir up, or awake, as the word (d) signifies, contentions and quarrels which were happily laid asleep; these he renews by tale bearing, and whisperings, and evil surmises; by raising lies, spreading false reports and calumnies, and by virulent reproaches and slanders;
but love covereth all sins; not its own, but others; in imitation of the pardoning love and grace of God, which covers all the sins of his people with the blood and righteousness of his Son. Love spreads its mantle over the sins of its fellow creatures and Christians, and forgives them, even all of them: instead of exposing them, hides and conceals them; and, instead of loading and aggravating the infirmities of others, puts the best constructions on them, hopes and bears, and believes all things, Co1 13:7; see Pe1 4:8; where the apostle seems to have respect to this passage. This is not to be understood as conniving at or suffering sin upon others, or as contrary to Christian reproofs and rebukes for it.
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(d)
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. Hatred stirreth up strifes] It seeks for…
Verse 12. Hatred stirreth up strifes] It seeks for occasions to provoke enmity. It delights in broils. On the contrary, love conciliates; removes aggravations; puts the best construction on every thing; and pours water, not oil, upon the flame.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Pro 10:12. Hatred stirreth up strife — Upon every…
Pro 10:12. Hatred stirreth up strife — Upon every slight occasion, by filling men’s minds with suspicions and surmises, whereby they imagine faults where there are none, and aggravate every small offence; but love covereth all sins — Either doth not severely observe, or willingly forgives and forgets the injuries and offences of others, and so prevents contention and mischief.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Love covereth all sins - i. e., First hides,…
Love covereth all sins - i. e., First hides, does not expose, and then forgives and forgets all sins.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Charles Bridges 1846 · Public Domain (Pro 10:12 quoted in the NT: 1Pe 4:8 )
(Pro 10:12 quoted in the NT: 1Pe 4:8 )
A simple but forcible contrast! Hatred, however varnished by smooth pretense, is the selfish principle of man. (Tit 3:3 .) Like a subterraneous fire, it continually stirs up mischief, creates or keeps alive rankling coldness, disgusts, dislikes, "envyings and evil surmisings;" carps at the infirmities of others; aggravates the least slip (Isa 29:21 ); or resents the most trifling, or even imaginary, provocation. These strifes are kindled (Pro 15:18 ; Pro 16:27-28 ; Pro 28:25 ; Pro 29:22 ) to the great dishonour of God, and the marring of the beauty and consistency of the gospel. Is not here abundant matter for prayer, watchfulness, and resistance? Let us study 1 Corinthians 13 in all its detail. Let it be the looking-glass for our hearts, and the standard of our profession. Love covers, overlooks, speedily forgives and forgets. (Pro 17:9 . Gen 45:5-8 .) Full of candor and inventiveness, it puts the best construction on doubtful matters, searches out any palliation, does not rigidly eye, or wantonly expose (Gen 9:23 ) a brother’s faults; nor will it uncover them at all, except so far as may be needful for his ultimate good. To refrain from gross slander, while abundant scope is left for needless and unkind detraction, is not covering sin. Nor is the "seven-times forgiveness" the true standard of love (Mat 18:21 ), which, like its Divine Author, covers all sins. And who does not need the full extent of this covering? What is our brother’s all against us, compared with our all against God? And how can we hesitate to blot out a few pence, who look for the covering of the debt of ten thousand talents? (Mat 18:22-35 .) Oh! let us "put on the Lord Jesus" in his spirit of forbearing, disinterested, sacrificing love — "Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye."†
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Footnotes:
†1 Col 3:13. Compare 1Pe 4:8 . The first clause of the verse, compared with the apostle’s application of the second, clearly proves that the subject is the covering our brother’s sin before men. Este — one of the most evangelical of the Romish interpreters — thus limits the application. The gloss, therefore, of man’s covering sins before God is utterly groundless. Compare Pro 17:9 . Calvin and Geier conceive Jas 5:20 to be only an allusion to the Proverb. The latter adds — ’It is one thing to cover sin before men; another thing to cover it before God. The first is the act of love. (1Co 13:4 . Gal 6:2 .) The last requires an infinite price, equal to the turning away of the eternal wrath of God.’ Rom 3:25 . 1Jn 1:7 . Psa 32:1-11 .
Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Sins. Septuagint, "all who contend." Charity pardons all, 1…
Sins. Septuagint, "all who contend." Charity pardons all, 1 Peter iv. 8.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain strifes--or, "litigations."
strifes--or, "litigations."
covereth--by forgiveness and forbearance.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. Stirreth up — Rather, uncovers strifes, quarrels. The…
12. Stirreth up — Rather, uncovers strifes, quarrels. The root of the verb has several meanings; one is, to make bare, uncover. This may have some reference to תכסה, (tekhasseh,) covers, in the second clause: but love (tekhasseh) covers over all transgression; that is, forgives them. Comp. Pro_17:9; Jas_5:20; 1Pe_4:8; 1 Corinthians 13. Tekhasseh (in the preceding verse also rendered “covereth”) is here accompanied with על, ‘hal, over, which more distinctly gives it the sense named. The idea may be, that a hateful, unamiable man uncovers (makes bare, and keeps before his mind’s eye, remembers in an unforgiving spirit) the strifes or quarrels, and their causes, in which he is interested; while a loving, well disposed man covers up, forgives, and forgets transgressions against himself. The common understanding, that of concealing the faults or sins of friends, is also a good sense. It is not impossible that both meanings may be intended. These artistically arranged sentences often partake of the enigmatical.
There is something in them to exercise the mind, to think about, to guess out.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. love covereth &c.] See 1Pe_4:8, where the use…
12. love covereth &c.] See 1Pe_4:8, where the use of charity for love in A.V. obscures the fact that it is probably a quotation of this proverb. The LXX., however, has here a different reading (πάντας δὲ τοὺς μὴ φιλονεικοῦντας καλύπτει φιλία), so that the Apostle must either have quoted from the Hebrew, or taken the proverb as it was then in common use. Comp. Jas_5:20.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) Hatred stirreth up strifes . . .—Hatred rakes…
(12) Hatred stirreth up strifes . . .—Hatred rakes up again old feuds which have slumbered, but love covers up and refuses to look at any wrong done to it. A similar expression occurs in 1Pe_4:8 and Jas_5:20, though probably in a somewhat different sense. (See the note on the former passage.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Hatred stirreth up strife. (Pro_6:14) Love covereth all sins.…
Hatred stirreth up strife. (Pro_6:14) Love covereth all sins. (Pro_17:9) The reference is primarily to the blood feud, the existence of which led to the establishment of the cities of refuge. Hatred keeps alive the old feeling of revenge, and seeks opportunities of satisfying it; but love puts aside, forgets and forgives all offences against itself. This sentiment comes very near the great Christian principle, "Love covereth a multitude of sins". (1Pe_4:8; comp. 1Co_13:4 Jam_5:20) The Talmud pronounces, "To love a thing makes the eye blind, the ear deaf;" and the Arab says, "Love is the companion of blindness." Septuagint, "Love (filia ) covereth all those who love not strife.
The cloak of charity.
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One of the devices of the parallelism or rhythm of ideas, which is the general characteristic of Hebrew poetry, is the alternative treatment of the same thought from two opposite points of view from positive and negative poles. The value of some good thing is emphasized by contrasting it with the repulsive nature of its contrary, as Venetian ladies tried to appear the more fair by having negro pages to attend them. Thus the beautiful work of love, in covering of sins, is here made most attractive by being brought out on the dark background of the ugly doings of hatred. It may be profitable, therefore, for us to glance at the more painful subject first.
I THE DARK BACKGROUND. "Hatred stirreth up strifes.
1. Where there is hatred strifes will be stirred up. This hideous passion is active, powerful, and contagious. It is not content to consume itself in hidden fires; it will blaze out and spread its mischief abroad.
(1) "Hatred stirreth up strifes" because it starts new quarrels; it is irritating, provoking. An incendiary will always find plenty of fuel. When the spark is struck the tinder is ready to receive it. It is not in human nature to submit tamely to insult. Though it takes two to make a quarrel, when one man shows himself offensively quarrelsome he will not be long in finding an antagonist.
(2) Then "hatred stirreth up strifes" because it aggravates old quarrels. It pokes the fire. It freshens the smouldering embers and shakes them up so that they break out into a blaze again. It is the great mischief maker, and where it finds a little rift it sets diligently to work to widen this into a great chasm.
2. Where strifes are stirred up hatred is behind them. The strifes are a sign of the presence of hatred. True, a benevolent man may be dragged into a quarrel; but he will not provoke it himself, and he will not maintain it a moment longer than righteousness requires. A quarrelsome disposition is at bottom grounded on hatred. For if we loved one another, how could we desire to be at variance? Tale bearing, reporting words that one knows will only rouse ill feeling between two people, presenting things in their worst light so as to suggest offensive thoughts, exaggerating the unkindness of a person by imputing bad motives, all such conduct is inconsistent with Christian charity; it is just the behaviour of the old serpent, who brought discord into Eden, and was "a murderer from the beginning.
II THE BRIGHT PICTURE. "But love covereth all sins." This does not refer to one"s own sins to the fact that one who levee much is forgiven much. (Luk_7:47) It is the sins of others that love covers.
1. Love covereth all sins against one"s self. "Love suffereth long, and is kind". (1Co_13:4) The Christian must; forgive his enemies because he is taught to love them. All forgiveness springs from love. God pardons us for nothing that we do, but for the sake of his love in Jesus Christ. But our Lord has told us plainly that unless we forgive men their trespasses against us neither will our heavenly Father forgive us our trespasses. This is therefore no question of counsels of, perfection, but one of the first elements of the Christian life, if we cherish a vindictive spirit against anyone, we are ourselves still unforgiven by God, still dead in trespasses and sins. If we do not prove one love by forgiving, men, we do not possess it, and without love to our brethren we can have no love to God. Therefore so long as we obstinately refuse forgiveness to any one who has wronged us, our Christianity is nothing but hypocrisy; it is a lie.
2. Love covereth all sins in others generally, i.e. it leads us not to note them. not to report them, not to aggravate the guilt of them, not to make mischief by tale bearing. Further, it is not content to be negatively oblivious of sin. It must be active in throwing the cloak of charity upon it. Of course we must be just and truthful. But these obligations leave us free in most cases to labour to prevent mischief by a charitable behaviour in our social influence. The Christian is not called to be an informer. At least Christian love will make a man a peacemaker. If he cannot hide the sin without unfaithfulness to some trust, he can endeavour to prevent the rising of evil passions. This is the grand Christian method of conquering wickedness. The law chastises by punishment; the gospel reforms by forgiveness. So Christ, the incarnation of God"s love, covers all our sins, and renews our hearts through the grace of forgiveness.
The conquest of love.
"Love covereth all sins." It does this in that
I IT CARRIES THE WEIGHT OF MANY SHORTCOMINGS.
1. On the one band, many proprieties will not atone for the absence of love. We are wholly unsatisfied if one who sustains to us a very near relationship (husband, wife, son, daughter, etc.) is scrupulously correct in behaviour if love be wanting from the heart. Nothing can compensate for that. The kindness that is not prompted by affection is of a very poor order, and it does not satisfy the soul.
2. On the other hand, the presence of pure and strong affection makes many things tolerable which in themselves are hard to bear. Not that any one has a right to excuse himself for transgressions of law, of whatever kind they may be, on the ground of his tenderness of heart. It is a complete and dangerous misreading of our Lord"s word (Luk_7:47) to suppose that he meant that sins are forgiven because of the presence of much love; it is the presence of much love that is the proof, not the ground, of forgiveness (see homily in loc. ). But it is a patent and common fact of human life that we can not only bear with one another, but can love and honour one another when love dwells in the heart and shines in the countenance and breathes and burns in the words and actions, even though there may be much faultiness and many infirmities that have to be forgiven.
II IT IS PREPARED WITH GENEROUS INTERPRETATIONS of much misbehaviour. Where a hard, cast-iron severity sees nothing but transgression, love sees much extenuation or even complete excuse; or it goes beyond that, and sees, or believes that it sees, a worthy and not an unworthy motive. It magnifies or invents a reason which puts conduct in another light, and makes it appear pardonable, if not creditable. It has quite a different account to give of the transaction; it is that which only generous love could see and could supply.
III IT HAS A LARGE FORGIVENESS FOR EVEN GREAT OFFENCES. The Divine love "abundantly pardons." It blots out the worst misdeeds and pardons the negligence and impiety of whole periods of a sinful life. The human love that is likest to the Divine can overlook very dark misdoings, and take back to its embrace those who have gone away and astray into a very "far country" of sin.
IV IT REDEEMS AND RESTORES. When law does not avail, love will succeed in winning the erring to wiser and better ways. It can lay its hand upon the sinner with a touch that will tell and will triumph. It has a power to break the obduracy of guilt for which violence is utterly inadequate. It alone can lead the rebellious spirit into the gate of penitence and faith, and make its future life a life of obedience and wisdom. Thus in the best way, winning the noblest of all victories, it "covers sin" by conquering it, by leading the heart to the love of righteousness and the practice of purity. Where the rough winds of penalty will fail, the soft, sweet sunshine of love will succeed most excellently. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.
Pro_10:12
Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.
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The hiding work of love
Love is not a New Testament virtue or grace, nor is it left for the New Testament to praise it in high strains of music. From the beginning love has been an angel in the world, gladdening men by its brightness, soothing men by its persuasiveness, and luring souls with infinite gentleness towards all that is true and beautiful. Love takes the largest view of life--it does not vex itself with temporary details, with transient aberrations; it looks down into the very core and substance of the soul, and, knowing that the heart is true in its supreme desires, it covers many flaws and specks, yea, even faults and sins, in the hope that concealment may destroy their influence and their very existence. There is a covering up which is a vain concealment, a merely deceitful trick; no such covering up is meant here: this is rather the covering up with which God covers the iniquities of the pardoned man, the sins of him who has confessed all his guilt, and desired an exercise of the Divine mercy. Love is not mere sentiment, an easy-going action of the mind, too self-complacent and self-indulgent to enter with energy into any moral inquiry. The love which is commended in Scripture is an ardent love, keen, critical, sagacious, far-sighted, not imagining that things are destroyed because they are concealed; it is the love of God which at all costs must expel sin from the universe, and set up the kingdom of God among men. (J. Parker, D.D.)
Charity like the orchid
In tropical forests the orchids thrust out long floating roots into mid-air, from the impure vapours of which they draw their nourishment. They live on trunks of huge decaying trees, which, as decomposition proceeds very rapidly, would, if left alone, fill the air with poisonous gases. But the orchid swings in rich festoons over the rotting boughs: covers the deformity with its own loveliness, absorbs all foul exhalations and turns them into the perfume of its own sweet flowers. Charity is this beautiful orchid, covering human frailty, clearing away harsh, suspicious, and cruel slanders; breathing forth merciful judgments, com- passionate sympathy. (James Neil, M.A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_10:12
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_10:12
LOVE AND HATRED
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The lawfulness or unlawfulness of hatred and strife depends upon the subject or occasion of such feeling. God hates sin, and we know that this hatred is the fruit of one of His highest attributes. The divine and Incarnate Son of God foretold that He had not “come to send peace on earth, but a sword” (Mat_10:34), and therefore even He was an occasion of strife because He was a hater of sin. There is then a holy as well as a wicked hatred, a lawful as well as an unlawful strife. But the hatred of the text being placed in contrast with love is evidently the malicious hatred of a wicked man.
I. The hatred of the wicked is—
1. Insatiable. It has been said that those who hate have first injured. This is doubtless true, but there must have been some amount of hatred to prompt the injury. But after the injury has been inflicted, the hatred is not diminished, but is generally increased. Herodias prevailed upon Herod to put John the Baptist into prison, but this did not lessen her malice. It was such a devouring flame as could be quenched by nothing but his blood. The pain which conscience inflicts upon him who has injured another is put to the account of the injured person, and goes to increase the bitterness of the anger against him.
2. It is generally impartial. Wicked men generally begin by hating good men, but they come in time to a habit of hating bad men too. The blind man will be as likely to strike his friend as his foe. Hatred is blind, and those who begin by hating those whom they consider their enemies, generally end by hating their so-called friends.
II. The effect of hatred. It stirs up strife. This implies that the materials for strife are already in existence. There are no signs of mud upon the surface of a peaceful lake, but it only requires some disturbing element to be thrown in to show that it is lying at the bottom. The spirit of the most sanctified man has some evil tendencies within it, which may be stirred up by undeserved hatred. Only One who ever wore our human nature had within Him no germ of strife which might be stirred up by hatred. Only One could say that temptation found “nothing” in Him (Joh_14:13). The elements which may be stirred up to strife have a lodging place in the most sanctified human spirit, and when strife is thus stirred up by hatred the whole soul or the whole society is influenced for evil. When the lake is stirred up from the bottom all the waters are more or less troubled, and when the elements of contention are at work even in a good man or in a Christian community the whole man or the entire community is ruffled and disturbed. In contrast with this hatred, which is not only sin in itself but, by stirring up strife, is the occasion of sin in others, is placed the love which “covereth” or does away with sin.
I. Love covers sin by forgiving it. Malicious hatred, even when it is directed against sin, will but incite to more sin. But forgiveness of the sin may lead to its being forsaken, and the mere fact of being forgiven may give the sinner an impulse after a better life in the future, and thus enable him to efface the remembrance of the past. If a man is deeply in debt to another, and that other gives him a discharge of his debt, the very fact of his being legally free may give him such new energy to work as may enable him to pay that which he owed. And a sense of being forgiven a moral debt will sometimes have this effect upon the soul. God’s covering up of sin by forgiveness is the beginning of a new life to those who are willing to accept His pardon (Psa_32:1; 1Jn_1:7).
II. Love covers sin by forgetting it. It is in the nature of love not only to forgive an injury, but to forget that the injury has ever been done. And a consciousness that our sin is covered by being forgotten is very healing to the spirit. For a soul that has lived a sinful life is like a man that has passed through a campaign and received many wounds. He requires skilful treatment and gentle nursing; and when the wounds have been bound up, and have, perhaps, begun to heal, care must be taken that no rough hand re-opens them, and causes them to bleed afresh. A word spoken which shows that the sinful past is still remembered by those who have professed to forgive, may re-open old wounds with a fatal effect. Love covers sin as God declares that He covers it. His promise is not only “I will forgive their iniquity,” but, “I will remember their sin no more” (Jer_31:34).
III. Love covers sin by making active efforts to recover the sinner. Love will not be content with forgiving when forgiveness is sought, but it will go out of its way to recover the erring. The godly man will walk in the foot-steps of Him who came to seek that which was lost. God did not wait until man returned to Him before He held out hope of forgiveness. As soon as Satan’s hatred had led man into sin, He held out hope of return to holiness by the promise of Him who “Should bruise the serpent’s head” (Gen_3:15). And in the fulness of time, by the gift of His Son, He showed the depth of His love and His desire to cover the “sin of the world.” And as in many human homes there are those who owe their present moral standing, the recovery of all that makes existence worth having, to the love that followed and sought them when they were outcasts, so those who people the heavenly home—that multitude which God alone can number—are the fruit of that Divine love which not only covered a multitude of sins by forgiving and forgetting the sin, but sought out the sinner in order to forgive him.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
“Love covereth all sins,” saith Solomon, covers them partly from the eyes of God, in praying for the offenders; partly from the eyes of the world, in throwing a cloak over our brother’s nakedness; especially from its own eyes, by winking at many wrongs offered it.—T. Adams.
Hatred disturbs the existing quiet by railings; stirs up dormant quarrels on mere suspicions and trifles, and by unfavourable constructions put upon everything, even upon acts of kindness. As hatred by quarrels exposes the faults of others, so “love covers” them, except in so far as brotherly correction requires their exposure. Love condones, yea, takes no notice of a friend’s errors. The disagreements which hatred stirs up, love allays; and the offences which are usually the causes of quarrel, it sees as though it saw them not, and excuses them (1Co_13:4-7). It gives to men the forgiveness which it daily craves from God.—Fausset.
To abuse the precept in 1Pe_4:8 (where this text is quoted) into a warrant for silencing all faithful reproofs of sin in others, would be to ascribe to charity the office of a procuress.—Cartwright.
First, it makes us to cover and pardon the wrongs that others do us. Secondly, a loving carriage maketh others pardon the wrongs that we do them. Thirdly, it maketh God to pardon the offences which we commit against Him.—Jermin.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain v. 12. Hatred stirreth up strifes, so that constant…
v. 12. Hatred stirreth up strifes, so that constant quarrels and disputes are the result; but love covereth all sins, by treating transgressions in a kind manner, as diseases of the soul, by being ready to forgive, by endeavoring to gain the sinner from the error of his ways and have him turn to the paths of righteousness, Jas 5:20; 1Co 13:4; 1Pe 4:8.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 love covers over
love covers over
Love acts like a person who quiets trouble between people instead of stirring it up. (See: Personification)
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on the lips of a discerning person
"Lips" represents what a person says. AT: "in what a sensible person says" (See: Metonymy)
a rod is for the back
"Rod" represents strong, physical punishment and "the back" represents the person who receives the punishment. AT: "a person who has no sense needs forceful punishment" (See: Metonymy and Synecdoche)
translationWords
love
wise
discern
rod
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.