Walking with the Wise #57: The Power of Love

“Hatred stirs up strife,
but love covers all offenses.”
—Proverbs 10:12

Love is a wonderful thing. The Bible has a great deal to say about love because God, in His essence, is love (1 John 4:8). We all have experienced, at one time or another, the power of love. And one of the greatest things that love can do is cover all offenses.

In today’s proverb Solomon intentionally contrasts two different and parallel feelings: hate and love. Hate, which is the opposite of love, does not seek the blessing of God, nor does it seek the benefit of man. Instead, hate seeks to downplay, disregard, distress, and destroy others. We can see in our passage that hatred stirs up strife (e.g., discord, conflict, friction, or bitter disagreement). Hatred is the opposite of love because love seeks the benefit of the other. Love seeks harmony within truth, while hatred wants discord apart from truth.

Love is powerful because it is the trump card to all other feelings. While hatred, jealousy, envy, and the like propagate bitterness and all kinds of vile thoughts, attitudes, and feelings, much like several fires raging in a forest, love is the rain that covers and can extinguish all of them. That’s what Solomon meant when he wrote, “love covers all offenses.” When we love someone, we are able to overlook the wrongs that have been done against us, which is to say that we don’t harbor bitterness toward them. Not that we can do this in our flesh. The Spirit is essential to bring this truth to reality. God’s love, exemplified in Christ, showed how God could both love and deal with sin at the same time because God  

“…so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”—John 3:16. 

It was while we were still sinners and God’s enemies that He gave His Son to die for us (Romans 5:8). Only love could give in the face of hostility, and it is only love—as seen in Christ—that is going to win in the end.

We are to put on similar attitudes of our hearts. We are to love God (cf. Matthew 22:37), our neighbor (Matthew 22:39), and our enemies (Matthew 5:43). And as we love the way God desires us to love, others will see Christ in us and want what we have. Or as Peter said,  

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins”—1 Peter 4:8. 

And James,

“…let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins”—James 5:20.

Only through entering into the love that God has shown us in Christ can this world be transformed. Only through loving others are offenses understood and dealt with. May our God of love, who is love, enable us to love Him, our neighbors, and our enemies so that others might see His love at work in our lives and the lives around us for the praise and honor of His name. Amen.