Love Covers All Transgressions

Hatred stirs up strife,
But love covers all transgressions.

Proverbs‬ ‭10‬:‭12‬ NASB

We need love, and we need to give love. God has shown us love, and He has shown us how to love through Christ, His Son. He wants us to love as He has loved us.

God doesn’t want us to stir up strife, but to love one another, forgiving sins, preserving peace. Sadly, though we have seen His love for us through the blood of Christ spilled on the cross, we must be reminded to love rather than hate.

When fellow believers sin, we often look for ways to expose their sins, to bring them to justice. (Now, there comes a time when – if a believer refuses to repent – sins must be exposed in the course of biblical church discipline. We have not reached that point – we’re talking here about beginning this process from a place of love.) Instead, let’s ask God to change our desires. Ask for the desire to love them, forgive their transgressions, and keep peace.

Love. Don’t hate.

Forgive. Don’t condemn.

The Deepest Change

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

‭Romans‬ ‭13‬:‭8-10‬ NASB

The thing God wants most for us to do is love. Love fulfills every aspect of the Law. So, If we will love our neighbors as we love ourselves, thereby doing no wrong to anyone but doing good to them, we will fulfill the law.

The law is impossible to keep because we’re self-centered. We think more highly of ourselves than we ought. We must become other-centered.

He loves us so much He wants us to love each other.  This is what we have to do to be who God wants us to be.

Since we’re incapable of keeping the law, we must therefore be incapable of loving others on our own. Only by His grace can we be supplied with the love we need to love others.

We need to be transformed by God, and this is one of the deepest changes that must take place in us.

Wisdom of the Foolish

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

For it is written,

“I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.”

Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭1‬:‭18-25‬ NASB

Unless we believe, unless God is at work in us, the Gospel is foolishness to us. The truth is we are the foolish. God is wise beyond measure, so wise that our “wisdom” cannot stand before Him.

God wisely chose to save us, not through ways that seem wise to us, but through a way that looks foolish to us. In fact, God’s plan of salvation is essentially the opposite of what we look for in a way to heaven. But those He calls see His wisdom. We see that we are fools, we are weaklings, in light of His wisdom and strength.

We have to trust God’s wisdom more than that of men. It’s only by His grace that we are called and can receive both salvation and wisdom.

He is infinitely wise, and the only wisdom we have comes from Him. When we forget this truth, pride takes over. We need the wisdom He offers and the humility that arises from knowing that need.

Let’s have the humility to ask for and receive His wisdom, to learn to actually trust God.

Hope That Will Not Disappoint

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭1-5‬

 

Because faith in Christ is credited to us as righteousness, we are at peace with God, and we stand in grace. We can rejoice in the hope of God’s glory and in tribulation because, by building character, trials lead to that same hope, a hope that will not disappoint.

 

Because faith is credited to us as righteousness, we can exult in true hope. Because trials, through building character and and perseverance, lead to hope, we can exult in tribulation. We have hope no matter what through the gift of Christ’s death and resurrection.

 

Let’s praise God because He loves us and has shown it by placing His Holy Spirit in us. Let’s praise Him because He does the work of faith, grace, justification, and hope in us.

 

Let’s rejoice in this hope that we have, even when we don’t feel we have hope.

 

What powerful change would be evident in us if we lived in continual hope born out of godly character.