Love Covers all Transgressions and Mistakes but Uncovering others brings in a Curse

Love covers all transgressions; for us to cover others and their mistakes and transgressions, this is love, but uncovering others brings in a curse. In order for us to live a godly life, a life that expresses God, we need to know who our God is.

Our God is love; He is love itself. Love is not in or of us; love is God, and God is love.

For us to live a godly life, we must express what God is; God is love, so for us to live a godly life, we need to express God as love.

How can we express God as love? We may love those who love us and those whom we like, but even this love runs out.

Love is the inner substance of God; God not only loves man, but He Himself is love. Love is the substance of what God is.

For us to go on with the Lord and in the Lord’s recovery, we need to live out a life of love. We need not only to love others but also live a life of love.

This means that we need to be filled with God; we need to open to Him to allow Him to pour out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and we need to love others by Christ in us as love.

In particular, love is expressed by covering others; we may see things in others, we may realize that there are some defects and shortcomings, and we do not expose them, even though they happen again and again.

1 Corinthians chapter 13 is on love; the entire chapter speaks about one thing: love, that is, God as love.

According to this chapter, love suffers long, love is kind, and love is not jealous. Love doesn’t brag and is not puffed up; love doesn’t behave unbecomingly and doesn’t seek its own things. Love is not provoked and it doesn’t take account of evil. Wow!

This is something that only God as love can do. Love doesn’t rejoice because of unrighteousness but rather, it rejoices with the truth.

Love covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love will never fall away.

Other things will fall away, but love will always be there, because God is love, and love is the very nature of God’s being.

The love of God is characterized by these matters, and the book of Proverbs touches the aspect of love. In particular, Proverbs speaks that love covers all things – love covers all transgressions.

Love Covers all Transgressions – Covering others is loving them but Uncovering them brings in a Curse

The book of Proverbs speaks concerning love; there are some really good nuggets that speak of what love is and does, in particular, that love covers all transgressions (Prov. 10:12b).

He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends (Prov. 17:9).

We all have transgressions, we all make mistakes, and we all have shortcomings; however, when we see others’ shortcomings, we should simply cover them.

Instead of gossiping about others or broadcasting their shortcomings, we need to cover them.

If we see what others have done and repeat it, we separate close friends; in other words, if we spread it, we repeat it, and we bring in division.

But when we cover others and their mistakes, we seek love and we preserve love; covering is love. To cover is love, but to uncover is not love (James 5:20).

Love never exposes; there is no justification for uncovering others.

No one can be justified; no one is justified in uncovering others, for no one is better than others, and only God is qualified to expose or uncover others.

To expose others or uncover them is against God’s principle; God is love, and to expose anyone’s shortcomings and failures in a public way is against the nature of God. Covering brings in blessing, but uncovering brings in a curse.

We see this in Gen. 9:22-27 where Noah got drunk and was naked in his tent, and one of his sons saw him and told the others about it; the others, instead of going to see for themselves, went there backwards not to see, and they covered their father.

Yes, it was Noah’s failure, for he got drunk and got himself naked; but for Ham to uncover that failure was wrong, and what he received was the curse.

His brothers, Japheth and Shem, went backwards with a clothing withou even seeing their father’s nakedness, clothed their father, and covered him; they received the blessing.

In a very practical way, we in the church life need to cover one another in love; we should not expose one another’s mistakes, shortcomings, or problems but rather, we should cover one another to enjoy the blessing.

Uncovering others brings in a curse, but covering them brings in God’s blessing.

Those who uncover others suffer the curse; those who cover others’ sins, defects, and shortcomings enjoy gain and receive the blessing.

There are sins that are criminal in nature; we should not cover that up.

This is very important. We need to make the differentiation – when something is criminal in nature, we need to turn it over to the proper authority for that to be dealt with; we should not cover it up.

The Lord’s recovery will not cover up any of the wrongdoings that are criminal in nature.

However, we in the Lord’s recovery cover one another’s shortcoming and defects, exercising to have God’s love to cover them.

Our focus shouldn’t be on others; even if we hear things about them or we see them doing something that is not right, we should simply bring it to the Lord and learn to cover them in love.

Even more, we need to learn to minister Christ to them, bringing them to contact the Lord and repent and return to Him.

How can we expose the straw in our brother’s eye when we have a beam in our own eye? We are not qualified to expose others, no matter how obvious their mistake is; we ourselves have our own mistakes and transgressions.

May we bring this to the Lord and open to Him concerning this, telling Him,

Lord Jesus, dispense Yourself as love into us more until we no longer expose or uncover others but cover them in love. Thank You, Lord, You as love live in us, and we can cover others’ transgressions in love. Save us from uncovering others or repeating what they did wrong. Save us from bringing a curse upon ourselves by uncovering others’ transgressions and mistakes. Oh Lord, even as we are so close to one another in the church life and we see so many things in others, may we be careful not to uncover them. May we not offend Your nature of love. May we seek to bring in Your blessing by covering others’ sins, defects, and shortcomings. Thank You, Lord, You cover us, You forget our sins which are so many, and You love us unconditionally. Live in us and be expressed through us as love!

Shepherding others According to God with a Love that Covers all Transgressions

We are easily provoked because we lack love; love, however, is not provoked.

If we are filled with the divine love, no matter how much we get rebuked, we will not be provoked.

Love doesn’t take account of evil; in ourselves, we have taken account of others’ evil, but when we are filled with the divine love, we don’t remember others’ evil. In our shepherding others and in living the church life, we need to cover others’ sins, not taking account of their evils.

Love covers all things (1 Cor. 13:7); love covers not only the good things but also the bad things.

If we are to shepherd others and we uncover their defects, shortcomings, or sins, we are disqualified from caring for them.

The elders who shepherd the saints need to remember that they should not uncover the saints they care for; uncovering others annuls our qualification to shepherd them.

We need to not only exercise our spirit and turn our heart to the Lord but also have a spirit of love for them, so that we may overcome the degradation of today’s church.

We may know others’ situation, we may know some of their mistakes and sins, but we should not uncover them; unless what they do is criminal in nature, we should exercise a spirit of love to cover them.

James said in his epistle that he who turns a sinner back from the error of his way will save that one’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins (James 5:19-20).

We shouldn’t hate those who are not up to standard or those who are led astray from the truth; rather, we should love them and shepherd them according to God with a love that covers all transgressions.

We shouldn’t love only those who meet with us and are so good, so kind, and so exercised; we should love all men, even those who stopped meeting with us and those who backslid into the world.

If someone has fellowship with us and after a while, he leaves us to join another group, we should continue to love him with a spirit of love, covering him and shepherding him according to God.

We need to learn to shepherd others according to God with a love that covers all transgressions (1 Pet. 5:2).

May the Lord give all the saints, especially the leading ones in the churches, a heart of love that will cover the saints’ shortcomings and transgressions.

It is so tempting for us all that, when we know certain things, see certain things, and hear certain things, we would uncover others or speak about their mistakes or shortcomings.

Maybe what others did is really bad, yet not criminal in nature; we need to exercise God’s love to bear and cover.

If we don’t cover one another because the Lord covers us, the Body will be dismembered, and we will be divided.

We need to learn to shepherd one another according to God and have a heart and spirit of love, caring for one another and not uncovering others’ transgressions.

How much we need to learn to shepherd the saints with the love of God, the love that covers all things and does not take account of evil!

Above all, we should have fervent love among ourselves, because love covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8).

When we cover others in love, our own shortcomings will be covered by God.

How grateful we are to the Lord that others don’t know our shortcomings and mistakes, for the Lord loves us and covers us in love both in Himself and in His Body!

We want to cooperate with the Lord to shepherd others according to God with a love that covers all transgressions.

Dear Lord Jesus, we love You and we love the saints, Your church, Your Body. We want to learn to shepherd others according to God with a love that covers all transgressions. Thank You dear Lord for covering our transgressions and forgiving them all in Your love. Duplicate Your heart of love in us so that we may love others with You as love and cover their transgressions, mistakes, sins, and shortcomings. May we have fervent love among ourselves, because love covers a multitude of sins. Amen, Lord, we want to be one with You in covering our fellow believers’ mistakes and shortcomings so that our mistakes and shortcomings may also be covered before You. Keep us under Your blessing as we love You, love one another, and cover one another!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “A Word of Love to the Co-workers, Elders, Lovers, and Seekers of the Lord,” pp. 15-16, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 10, Living a Godly Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Love covers all things and believes all things, / Love hopes in all things and endures all things. / Love never falls away and won’t be rendered useless. / But other things will pass away. (Song on, Love covers all things and believes all things)
  – In the church of Jesus there is love for you, / Love most pure and tender, love most deep and true; / Why should you be lonely, why for friendship sigh, / When the church of Jesus has a full supply? (Hymns #1278)
  – How sweet, how heav’nly is the sight, / When those who love the Lord / In one another’s peace delight, / And so fulfill His Word: / When each can feel his brother’s sigh, / And with him bear a part; / When sorrow flows from eye to eye, / And joy from heart to heart. (Hymns #857)