Source: newsthemegh.com/by Ransford Gyampo
In 1 Peter 4:8, we are admonished to continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sin.
What does it actually mean to say, “love covers a multitude of sin”? It doesn’t mean we must condone what is not right. It means, we must sometimes overlook and forgive the weaknesses of others.
We must not always seek to sit and arbitrate conflict. We must not always drag matters simply because we know the other person erred. Sometimes, we must simply cover the faults and weaknesses of others by simply overlooking, ignoring, and actually forgiving them, even when they haven’t asked for our forgiveness. That’s love, and we know this is very true, when we are genuinely in love. Let’s think about this a little more and see whether we haven’t all done this before, at one point in time, when we were in love.
In covering multitude of sin, these two things are also important. First, we must not be interested and excited in listening to the gossips about people’s faults and weakness. Secondly, we must not go gossiping about people’s faults and weaknesses. We are all guilty of the two. We are either so excited listening to a gossip from friends or on social media about the weaknesses of people, or we go about spreading rumors and gossiping about the sins and weaknesses of others. These do not show love but makes us feel holier than thou, in a manner that takes our eyes off our own weaknesses and the need to deal with them so we don’t perish.
When a weakness or sin, cannot be overlooked because it is open and may fester, it must first be addressed by not listening to gossips about it or by gossiping about it. Rather we must bear the sinner up in prayer. After prayer, we must be able to rebuke openly and offer remedial counsel in line with the word of God and as directed by the Holy Spirit. This is constructive and not gossip. In other words, in covering the weaknesses of others as a show of love, a certain level of constructive criticism is fine, but we must not be cynical or join other people to do so. We have no business gossiping or listening to gossips about other people’s weaknesses when we haven’t first gone on our knees to pray for them and offered other remedial interventions as prescribed by the word of God.
Sin must not be covered, it must be exposed. But gossiping about it or listening to gossip about it, isn’t the same as exposing it. Unfortunately, many of us as Christians, tend to enjoy gossips about other people’s weaknesses than ministering directly to them to help deal with their challenges. This doesn’t please God; and this doesn’t show love. So, this week, may God help us develop His kind of love, so we can cover multitude of sin without necessarily condoning them. Amen