1 Peter 4:8 (ESV) says, Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Love is not a blanket we hide our sins under. By loving our neighbor, we dont earn some sort of merit which covers the cost of a multitude of our sins. Rather, it is a veil that we use to help us get over the faults we might otherwise find in others. As the Apology to the Augsburg Confession puts it, [I]t could not have entered the mind of any apostle to say that our love overcomes sin and death; or that love is an atoning sacrifice on account of which God is reconciled apart from Christ the mediator; or that love is righteousness without Christ the mediator. For even if there were such a love, it would be a righteousness of the law rather than of the gospel, because the latter promises us reconciliation and righteousness when we believe that on account of Christ as the propitiator, the Father is gracious to us, and that the merits of Christ are bestowed upon us, (Ap. IV, 238, Kolb & Wengert translation). Only Christ covers over, takes away, pays the price for sins--not love or anything else. The Apology goes on to explain what love does, in fact, do, [T]his text does not speak about ones own sins, but of others when it says, love covers sins, namely, the sins of others, more precisely offenses between people. That is to say, even though these offenses flare up, love conceals them, forgives, yields, and does not carry everything to the fullest extent of the law, (Ap. IV, 242, Kolb & Wengert translation). In short, love sees the faults of others and doesnt hold them against them, but works with them, forgives them, and shows mercy. This is why St. Paul describes love as he does in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV), Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love isnt about the self, but is about others. Lastly, our love for one another finds its definition in the love God showed us through the saving person and work of Christ, In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another, (1 John 4:10-11, ESV).
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 15:32:54 +0000
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