Love’s Cover and Multitude

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

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

“For 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

Love… is patient, kind, content, humble, polite, selfless, generous, honest.

Love covers… with temperance, grace, willing forgiveness, just and thorough reconciliation.

A Multitude of sins… the complete record and remembrance of wrongs, sins of thought, word, and deed.

The love of Christ, for His Father and for us, kept Him on His way to earth and compelled Him to the cross. There He bore the excruciating penalty we deserved in a love so broad it covered all our sins- past, present, future, forever. The Passover Lamb whose blood covered the door to enable escape from slavery is ours, effectual and complete. (Exodus 12:21-23; Isaiah 43:25; Micah 7:19; John 1:29; 6:38; Hebrews 12:2)

“O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
vast, unmeasured, boundless, free,
rolling as a mighty ocean
in its fullness over me.
Underneath me, all around me,
is the current of Thy love;
leading onward, leading homeward
to Thy glorious rest above.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth, 
changeth never, nevermore!
How He watcheth o’er His loved ones,
died to call them all His own;
how for them He intercedeth,
watcheth o’er them from the throne.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
love of every love the best;
’tis an ocean vast of blessing,
’tis a haven sweet of rest.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
’tis heav’n of heav’ns to me;
and it lifts me up to glory,
for it lifts me up to Thee.” ~S. Trevor Francis (1834-1925)

This love, so deep and wide it has covered the sins of every believer who has ever been or will be, is mine to extend. First, have I received it without question or doubt, believing it is personal and vast for me? In salvation I’m then not only covered but filled as God spreads this love into and abroad in my heart. So what am I doing with it? How and with whom am I sharing it? (Romans 5:5)

Is Christ’s love enveloping my tendencies to jealousy, selfishness, and greed? Has it increased in my heart enough to reach a multitude? Am I genuinely exercising patience and kindness with humility and grace toward others? Do those with whom I work and live see evidence that Christ’s love compels my attitudes and actions? How might I spread love’s cover over bitterness, a thirst for vengeance, a cold heart? What changes need I make in willful priorities to love more genuinely, more lavishly? (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

Lord, keep me loving earnestly, patiently, kindly, generously, like You.