Good Monday morning and welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for making us a part of your weekly

routines, maybe your commute to work, whatever it is you're doing right now. We don't take

it for granted that you welcome us into your life. So thank you. Well, if you listened

on Friday, we looked at first Peter 3.8, their Peter calls Christians to strive towards

a unity of mind, he says, but we also saw that this unity of mind is not uniformity. We

don't all think identically, which means that Christian unity must hold together by love,

not simply by uniform thinking. And without this critical heart of love, unity simply

cannot happen. And speaking of love and how love unifies Peter goes on to say in the very

same letter, just a little later, a chapter later, that love quote covers a multitude of

sins in quote, our love covers sins. Peter makes that point in first Peter 4.8. But what does

it mean? Two listeners want to know Dustin in Atlanta asks Pastor John, how does love

cover over a multitude of sins? What sins? Whose sins does it cover? Mine or the person

or people I'm loving? In the same vein, Alan in Brisbane, Australia, right, send to ask

this, Pastor John, what is Peter driving at in this text? Are we covering over our inclination

to sin by loving or covering over their sins by not reacting to them? That is forgiving

them rather than taking revenge, Pastor John, what would you say to Austin and Alan?

First, first Peter 4, 7 to 8. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self-controlled

and so reminded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly,

and here comes that key phrase, since love covers a multitude of sins. So let's begin

by mentioning, observing a few old testament texts that lie behind Peter's language of

covering a multitude of sins. For example, here's the closest parallel, Proverbs 10, 12.

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. That's really close to what Peter

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