Love Covers A Multitude Of Sins
The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:7-8 ESV
The first epistle of Peter is an appeal to Christians dispersed around the world to live with eternity in mind in a manner that will allow them to fulfil God’s will for their lives. In the rough and tumble of everyday life, facing the demands of society, survival and even persecution, Peter gives one instruction which is ‘above all’. This one thing needs to be actioned before anything else, be prioritised as needing the most attention, and if you can only do one thing, do this! That one thing was to “keep loving each other, earnestly”.
The Passion translation says, “constantly echo God’s love for one another” because the original language implies that we are to be so closely related with other Christians (ie in your local church), that we are sustained and inspired by each other’s love. Then Peter gives his (and God’s) reason, because ‘love covers a multitude of sins’.
James makes a similar statement in James 5:20, but he expands on it by saying, the one who restores, returns, brings back a sinner to God (Passion) will save their soul and ‘cover a multitude of sins’.
To ‘cover a multitude of sins’, means to hide or protect someone from the effect of those sins. This includes all sin. I say this because the church has some sin that is fashionable and others that aren’t fashionable. There’s some sin that once a person has dealt with it, they are made out to be heroes, written books about and given pulpits. Other sins are hushed up and not spoken about, and others in which the offender is ‘exposed’ and paraded as an object of shame in front of the whole church community.
The Bible doesn’t discriminate between types of sin; love covers all sin. Granted, the Bible doesn’t say love ‘covers-up’ sin. However, it also doesn’t say, ‘love exposes sin’, or ‘love makes an example of sin’. The Bible gives the cure for sin, love; in particular the love of God. The function of our love toward sinners is to restore them to a loving God through protecting them from the effect of their sin.
Just recently I read on a Christian website about a well known Christian musician who was exposed by a large church for allegedly abusing an underage boy at a church camp decades ago. If true, and there’s no reason to think it wasn’t true, this was a horrible sin and one that could have a terrible impact on the victim’s life.
However, a few things concerned me about the report. Firstly, will ‘extracting a pound of flesh’ from the offender help the offended? Does seeking judgement and justice put the victim on a road to forgiveness and freedom?
Secondly, there was no mention that the offender had been approached and asked how he had dealt with the situation. There was no discussion of how they may be able to heal both the victim and the offender. It seemed like the underlying presumption was that the situation needed to be dealt with in the most public and humiliating way possible. Worse, the victim could not recover until ‘justice’ had been done. To me, this is a world apart from, "If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private … “ Matt 18:15, and “you who are spiritual should restore such a person with a gentle spirit” Galatians 6:1
As a child, I got caught shoplifting. My mother caught me. We were in a department store and I saw a pencil sharpener and an eraser that I liked and for some reason, I put them in my pocket. Somehow my mother knew and as soon as we left the store she asked me about it. I can’t remember much, I must have been about five years old, but I do remember she asked me “why?’, and that she would have bought it for me if I’d asked her. Then she took me to meet the store manager. He was very gentle with me and explained how these things belonged to someone else. The other lasting memory I have about it is that when I left the store, it was the last I heard about it. My mother hugged me and never mentioned it again. My brother never mentioned it and my father never mentioned it. I never shoplifted again.
If ‘love covers a multitude of sin’, we would expect to see Jesus, ‘covering a multitude of sin’. After all, Jesus was the perfect manifestation of God’s love on the earth. In Luke 19, we have a beautiful account of Jesus and Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector.
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him since Jesus was coming that way.
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:1-9 NIV
It’s hard to express how hated and despised Zacchaeus would have been amongst the Jews. He facilitated the Roman occupation by using all his local knowledge and cunning to extort taxes from the Jews and added his cut on top of the Roman taxes so that he became very wealthy himself.
Perhaps a parallel could be made with traitors in WW2, who worked with the Nazis against their own people. Immediately after the Germans were expelled from Paris, the locals rounded up women who were known to have formed relationships with German soldiers. They were publicly humiliated and had their heads shaved. Worse still, many of those who were suspected of aiding the Germans were summarily executed, before the local authorities and courts could deal with them.
This would explain why Zac had to climb a tree. I’ve stood in crowds and short people have a way of making it to the front. Not Zacchaeus. In what would have been a very humbling act, but he climbed a tree. There was no way the Jews were going to let him in the front row.
Why had Zac become a tax collector? He would have known that he would become an outcast in his own community. Satan has a way of finding whatever each of us has as idols and leveraging that idolatry to destroy our lives. Greed is an obvious form of idolatry that is motivated by a deeper need. For example, the need to be recognised or affirmed can express itself in greed and accumulating wealth. Perhaps Zachaeus had become a tax collector because of a deep need for affirmation and/or to have some sort of control of his life led him to make money an idol.
One way or another, all sin can be seen as a form of idolatry- to the extent that we put our faith in things other than God to supply our needs. The word ‘sin’ is literally defined as ‘missing the mark’. But, what is ‘the mark?’ Is the mark a perfect moral scoresheet? Did Jesus say, “I have come that you may be good and to be good in the fullest”- (with apologies to John 10:10). No, Jesus said, “I have come that you would have life.” The ‘mark’ is to experience the life God has for us through a right relationship with God. (John 10:10, 17:3, Galatians 3:19-22) Sin is living life and looking for life, apart from a right relationship with God.
Zachaeus problem was that he had abandoned his faith in God. He had believed lies about who he was and how his needs would be met. Jesus was the answer for Zachaeus sin.
At times when I have disappointed myself and hurt others, I have had to do some deep personal reflection. The main question I have had to ask my self is, why? As my mother asked me when I stole the pencil sharpener, why? I find I have a deep need for affirmation, recognition and affection. These needs can only be truly met by a right relationship with God. Yet, it’s the need for these things when I look for them in people and things other than what God has for me, that has caused the most hurt.
When I find myself saying hurtful things, it’s often because I feel that I have not been affirmed or recognised. Out of misplaced righteousness, self-righteousness, I’ve lashed out at others.
In all likelihood, Zacchaeus had a deep need for recognition and he felt this need could only be met by becoming wealthy. Instead, he became despised by his own people.
Jesus would have been aware of this. Significantly, it was not Jesus that highlighted Zac’s sin. It was the Jews. Just like it was not Jesus who labelled the woman caught in adultery as an adulterer, or the woman who poured perfume on his feet as a prostitute. Again, it was the Jews.
Jesus chose to ‘cover a multitude of sins’. By inviting himself to Zac's house for dinner, Jesus gave Zacchaeus' life value. Jesus identified with a sinner and proclaimed him as someone of importance and value. Jesus put a love covering over Zac’s sin and offered him the friendship and recognition he had always sought, but this time, as an act of grace.
Zacchaeus response was profound. Whereas the Law would require him to make amends of all he had stolen, plus twenty percent, Zacchaeus committed to make it up fourfold. Whereas the Law required him to give 10% of all he earned, Zac offered to give 50%. This is the type of response typical of people who have received unconditional love and grace.
Love covers a multitude of sin. Through patience, gentleness, forgiveness, bearing all things, believing the best in people and enduring all things, we shield people from the effect of sin. We show grace and allow God to work in their lives.
