The "Covering" of Love...

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	Judgment and Love


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	Love covereth all our sins


	Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins. (Proverbs 10:12)


	Hatred actively seeks contention and strife. The Hebrew word medanim comes from the root word din (דִן), meaning to judge, as in a court of law. Hatred looks with ill-will at the transgressions of others and prosecutes at the bar of judgment for conviction. When we hate others, we accuse them before justice but excuse them before mercy.

Love, on the other hand, seeks to "cover" the transgressions of others. The Hebrew word tekhaseh comes from the root kasa (כָּסָה), meaning to conceal or hide something entirely from view, like the flood waters that "covered" the whole earth (Gen. 7:19) or the Shechinah cloud that covered the Tabernacle (Num. 9:15). When we love others, we lose sight of that which leads us into accusation.


	The ultimate "covering of love" comes from the Lord Himself, who sacrificed His only Son so that our transgressions and sins would not be charged against us (Rom. 4:7-8). God's love overlooks our misdeeds and sees us as a reconciled and redeemed people. Since God forgives us, we likewise ought to forgive others for whom Yeshua our Savior willingly shed His blood....

Of course, not all hatred is bad, since the Scriptures command us to hate evil (Psalm 21:5, 139:21-22, etc.). However, the hatred, aversion, and malice that men habitually express for their fellow man demonstrates the radical depravity of the human condition. May God Himself spare us... Indeed, Yeshua our Messiah taught us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us, thereby promoting the message of God's "covering love" for a fallen and hurting world (Luke 6:27-35).

To be able to truly love others requires a miracle on the order of splitting the sea or raising the dead, but God has promised to put a new heart (לֵב חָדָשׁ) and a new spirit (רוּחַ חֲדָשָׁה) within us (see Ezek. 36:26). The world system seeks to enslave and paralyze people through fear, but God's Spirit enables us to overcome the world and its deception by demonstrating love and good will toward others.

Can we go wrong in this approach? After all, by turning a blind eye to the faults of others are we not making ourselves vulnerable to abuse or exploitation? Shouldn't we test other people's heart and their motives? Perhaps we should, though I would rather be found guilty of loving too much - of giving the benefit of the doubt to another - than to be found guilty of withholding love in cautionary prudence.... Practicing the good eye "builds up" the other person by prophetically envisioning their healing and redemption. In this connection, Kierkegaard wrote: "It is always in my power, if I am one who loves, to chose the most lenient explanation. If, then, this more lenient or mitigating explanation explains what others light-mindedly, hastily, harshly, hardheartedly, enviously, maliciously, in short, unlovingly explain summarily as guilt, if the mitigating explanation explains this in another way, it removes now one and now another guilt, and in this way reduces the multitude of sins or hides it." (Works of Love)

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