Atoning Love

Church Clothes

What is your look? By look, I mean what is the style of appearance that you present to the world around you. I suppose this could be broken down in a couple of ways.

First, this could refer to the look that we desire to have. For example, someone may want to be skinnier or more muscular or appear older or younger. People in our culture go to great expense and effort to cultivate their desired look. Another way to consider the original question is to think about how we actually look. This refers to the things that are not under our control but do show in our appearance. I think that most of us have a desired look and we use various external factors: diet, exercise, clothing, and even more to make our real look conform to our desired look. My point is that we are trying to cover up some things about ourselves and present only what we want others to see.

Just like we do with our outward appearance, we often do this with other parts of our lives. We may attempt to hide our failures and sins so that we will not carry the shame of those moments. The problem with this is that shame and guilt will only intensify as we struggle to maintain the facade of propriety and perfection instead of receiving the relief that comes through confession, repentance, and obedience (Numbers 32:20-23).

Love Covers a Multitude of Sins

But what if instead of trying to hide the less presentable aspects of our own lives we used our ability to present the best possible version of reality to cover the failures of other people.
What if instead of giving ourselves the assumption of innocence and good intention we assumed until proven otherwise that other people, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ, have the best of intentions in their actions and the purest motivations. I believe that if we desire to enjoy the peace, unity, and harmony that is available for us in Christ it must come from the fruit of the Spirit displayed in our lives through this kind of humble preference given to our fellow believers who we know are of the same Spirit that we are (Galatians 5:22-26).

The Apostle Peter tells us that “above all” we should prioritize loving one another because “love covers a multitude of sins”(1 Peter 4:7-9). But how does love cover sins? In the rest of this post, I would like to consider three ways that the love that we have received from God can help us to cover the sins of others, especially our beloved brethren.

The first way that love covers sin and sins is that this kind of love proceeds from the humility given to us by Christ. This humility that was modeled for us by Christ causes us “to count others more significant than” ourselves. When we do this the normal priority that we would give to our own preferences and opinions is dissipated and our consideration for the interests of others is increased. This is not a tactic to manipulate the situation to fulfill our own interests but a true desire to seek the good of one another.

The second biblical way that love covers sin is through something that love does not do. The Apostle Paul tells us that love “does not insist on its own way” and “does not rejoice in wrongdoing” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). Paul’s point is that love does not cause us to track the sins of other believers so as to punish them for those failures. The New International Version translates it as “keeps no record of wrongs.” Of course there is a proper place for us to call brothers and sisters to repentance of willful and unrepentant sin but if possible we ought to extend grace promiscuously (Matthew 18:15-22).

We also must remember that this is exactly how God has dealt with our sin. King David proclaimed that because of God’s love for those who fear Him, He has removed our sin as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:10-14). We must understand that this is not some unattainable level of Christian maturity but rather the normal process of spiritual maturity among those who are growing in grace together in Christ Jesus.

Finally, love for Jesus causes us to seek the blessing and beautification of His body and bride over our own personal motivations. This means that it is not only the love that we do surely have for one another individually but also the love that we have for the corporate body. Jesus is the perfect husband and He loves His bride some much that He died to save her. Jesus loves me, this I know, is true because the Bible tells me that Jesus loves His church of which I am apart (Ephesians 5:25-32).

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