Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 10:12 (Love Covers Transgressions) (Part 31)

This morning, as we turn to the book of Proverbs, chapter 10, we're going to be taking up a subject which is really the interest, the focus and of the center of attention for just about all men and all ages, the subject of hate and love. In fact, so important a subject is that of hatred and love that certain of the early Greek philosophers maintained that there were two primary cosmic forces that controlled all of reality. And those two forces were called love and hatred, forces of uniting and forces of separation. They thought of love and hate not simply as something crucial to social relationships and our own personal psychology, but they manufactured this view of the universe that all of nature was governed by love and hate as well. And so it's a crucial subject, this one, of love and hate. Plenty has been said in our culture about both of these things. I'd like you to hear what God's Word says in Proverbs, the tenth chapter. We'll take as our reading this morning, verse 12. Hear now, God's word. Hatred stirs up strifes, but love covers all transgressions. And thus far, the reading of God's Word. This morning we're moving from a contrast between wisdom and foolishness, between righteousness and wickedness, to a contrast that's equally important in God's Word and in the book of Proverbs, between love and hatred. I'm afraid, however, that it's a pitfall for us at this point to assume from the outset that we already know perfectly well what the difference between love and hatred is. And so you can kind of put your minds on, you know, kind of perma hold at this point. You can just kind of float away from listening with a lot of detailed attention to what the preacher has to say because, well, love and hate, yeah, those are common topics, and I certainly understand what they're all about. I want to suggest to you that it is a long and arduous task to finally come to understand, not only mentally, but all the more understand, in terms of the way we live our lives, what true love and true hatred are all about, and that it's a process of sanctification that each of us needs. It's a process of sanctification that the church needs. And it's certainly a process of renovation and change that all the world needs to understand the true meaning of. Of love and hate. The contrast between love and hate that we see in Proverbs 10:12 is really one important aspect of love and hate. One could say much more about love, one could say much more about hate than we see in Proverbs 10:12. But I want to suggest to you that if you were to give a discourse on love or a discourse on hate and forget what we find in Proverbs 10:12, you could not have covered the subject adequately. Yes, it's only an aspect, but it's a crucial. It's a central aspect of the biblical concepts of love and hate. And basically, this is a contrast between those who are troublemakers and those who are peacemakers. The crux issue that determines whether we are engaging in attitudes and actions which are hateful or whether we are engaging in attitudes and actions which are loving is going to be a matter of your attitude toward conciliation. What kind of conciliator are you? Are you a peacemaker when it comes to your relationships with other people? Or could it be justly said of you that you are a troublemaker when it comes to your relationship with others, or at least a significant number of others that you know, we read here in the Book of Proverbs. Hatred stirs up strife. Hatred is a troublemaker. Hatred is what motivates the person who is disrupting social harmony. Hatred is what keeps people from getting along. Hatred creates difficulties where difficulties need not be found. Love, on the other hand, and by exact contrast, covers up all transgressions. Where hatred goes and digs and digs and digs, stirring up things, always putting dust up into the air so that people can't see and they're choking and their relationships are stifled. Love is always tamping it down. Love is covering it over. Love is trying to see to it that it doesn't break out into a disruptive situation between you and another person. We read here that love covers all transgressions. This may not be the first time you've heard that, because you see, that statement, love covers all transgressions, or love covers a multitude of sins is heard in our culture, too. Pop culture has made use of that phraseology. Maybe you've run into this. Not just pop culture, but a number of religious cults and false religions make use of this language, too. And you know what they mean by that? They mean that love makes up for our own transgressions. Love covers a multitudes of sin. Multitude of sins means that when I act in a loving way and I do kindly deeds toward others, then that kind of covers over or makes up for counterbalances those bad things that I have done. You see, it's a message of good deeds. Atoning for bad deeds. That's a very popular notion. But It's a notion which stands in diametric contrast to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Anyone who believes that his good deeds can cover up for his transgressions, anyone who thinks that his acts of kindness toward others can counterbalance his sins against the holiness of God and the harmony and peace of society, is a works righteousness oriented person who according to the Bible, stands all the more under the wrath and curse of God. We cannot look upon the teaching of Proverbs here as telling us, go about saving yourself by being a good guy. Love covers up all those bad things you have done. Not only can we not understand that verse in this way because the Gospel is so clear from COVID to cover of the Bible and that would stand in contradiction to it, but you know, it wouldn't do much good even if we did believe that we're taught here because you know what the Bible tells us, none of us do enough good things to cover up for our bad things anyway. It is one of the self deceptive delusions of sinners, that little acts of piety can compensate for huge offenses against God in heaven. When I talk to people evangelistically or in a pastoral setting and they are coming across with the idea they need to do good because it's going to kind of compensate for the bad they've done, I usually try to make the point very clear to them that they are unrealistic about evaluating their own life because there's nothing in us that is good. According to the Bible, we all sin and we sin daily. Even those who have been regenerated, those who have been born again from above, even those who are struggling with sin are not in a position where they could commend their lives before God and say, I need not have you take account of any alien righteousness. You need not look to your Son, Jesus Christ. Just judge me for who I am. God. I mean, it is so ridiculous to think that we could stand in that relationship to God if we really understood our own hearts. And now a further problem. People who do think that perhaps God will look upon them and say, well, there's something commendable here. At least there's a favorable balance of good over evil here. Not only don't really understand themselves, but I think don't understand sin. If we can lower the demands of God's law, then maybe we might be able to fool ourselves. It's still fooling ourselves, but maybe if we lower the demands, we might fool ourselves that we are just barely inching up to reach them. If we could. For instance, those who teach A doctrine of perfectionism within the Christian church will tell you that if you were to completely let yourself go and be controlled by God, you could experience moments, perhaps hours and even days, of sinless perfection. And then you talk to these people and ask them, well, what do you mean by sinless perfection? Does that mean there is no tendency within me toward selfishness? Oh, no, no. That might be there, but you don't give into it. But don't you see? The Bible condemns that selfish motivation that's within me. The Bible condemns my inward thoughts, my nature, which is not yet attuned to the perfect righteousness of God. People who don't understand the full demands of God's law might fool themselves that love could cover their transgressions. But not those who understand the Bible, not those who are honest with themselves, not those who see what God's word really requires. Well then, what does this passage mean? How is it that love covers all transgressions? I think you'll understand this properly if you first of all notice that love stands in contrast to stirring up. This is an antithetical proverb. Hatred stirs up strifes. Love covers all transgressions. Covering is the opposite of stirring up. Hatred provokes, hatred magnifies, whereas love overlooks, love hides an offense. If you want an example of the contrast between stirring up and covering with different words used, look at Proverbs 11:13. He that goes about as a tale bearer reveals secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter. You see, the talebearer is one who goes around stirring up things. He knows a secret. He may know something about you that he thinks is a juicy little tidbit that he can use against you. But the person who is of a faithful spirit conceals it. He doesn't make a point of exposing and running to others with those little juicy tidbits. Likewise, in our passage Proverbs 10:12. Hatred has a stirring up effect, whereas love is a covering over effect, a concealing effect. In fact, if you want to understand the word properly, you might write down this paraphrase. Love draws a veil over the faults of others. To cover up means to cover from sight, to draw a veil over, to put it out of view. We sometimes say love is blind. You may have noticed that I've had the occasion to do some weddings in this last year, and in a very affectionate way, I'm glad to say, as I look at the people that I've counseled. Love is blind, you know. Here are these imperfections here are these problems. And if we wanted to dig in there and stir up strife, well, we could point out all sorts of things, couldn't we? And yet the amazing thing is when I ask people to write down areas that they need to improve and that they see in the other person that needs to be improved, sometimes I can't think of five things the other person needs to improve. And I say, oh, come on, that's great. Love covers over love draws a veil over. Love is blind. Now, of course, it's not truly Christian love if it lets a person live in sin, is it? It's not truly Christian love if it just pretends that no matter how vicious, no matter how selfish, no matter how unloving a person acts, we can just pretend it's not there. I'm not suggesting that. But there is a legitimate sense in which love should be blind. Love should have covered over the offenses of others. I can't see it. I just can't see it. And so the verse teaches us that hate is always picking a quarrel, but love turns a blind eye to every fault. I think this expresses very well the thought that we find in the Mosaic law at Leviticus 19:18. I'd like you to turn to that in your Bibles. Leviticus 19:18. Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against. Against the children of thy people. Love doesn't take vengeance. Love doesn't stir up strife. Love doesn't bear a grudge. It doesn't walk about saying, oh, I just. I'll never forget what he said. I'll never forget what she did. Love doesn't bear a grudge. Now, if you have your Bibles turned to Leviticus 19:18, you'll probably find it interesting. The pastor stopped reading midway through the verse. What's the rest of the verse say? But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am Jehovah. How many of us realize that, that the context in which the Old Testament law lays down the requirement to love our neighbor is that of not bearing a grudge, not taking vengeance, but being willing to reconcile with our neighbor. When there is a genuine problem, go to our neighbor, get it put out of sight, if it can't already be forgotten. Now, Jesus quotes, Of course, Leviticus 19:18, the portion about loving our neighbor as ourself. And he tells us that what that verse and what that passage is teaching is the heart of the law. All the law and the prophets come down to this. Have you learned how to love? And what is love? Love means conciliation Love means forgetting the offense. Love means being blind to it and saying, I will go on as though it hasn't happened. I'm afraid we all know people that, that seem to carry a chip on their shoulder. Don't we know people like them? You ever look in the mirror and see someone like that? Someone who just gets up on the wrong side of the bed? We say it's just kind of grouchy. But you know what that grouchiness means? That grouchiness means everything you say is going to be taken in the wrong way. Everything you do, the inadequacies of it is going to be seen, are going to be seen. And we say, well, person's just having a bad day. I'm going to tell you something. When we act like that, that's not just having a bad day, that's having a bad heart. That's hatred. We all know people, don't we, who are ever willing to gossip about the faults of others. What do you know about so and so? Did you hear? This attitude is not just a failure to come up to 100% in terms of our Christian lives. It isn't just a failure to fine tune Christian living. It's missing the heart of being a Christian. When we gossip about others, we all know people who are so thin skinned that unpleasant reactions are ever threatening when you talk to them or try to do things that they're going to know about or to them or for them. People who just can't miss your imperfections, who can't live with others. Such people are dominated by distrust and sadly, I think by a distance for others. And usually this stems from a sense of their own felt inadequacy or their own felt inferiority. It's kind of ironic the people that are so hard to get along with in this way, picking quarrels, having a chip on their shoulder, always gossiping, always being critical. Unpleasant reactions because they're so thin skinned are the very people who don't feel very good about themselves. And they're going to make sure that we all feel as badly about others. Apparently the social effect of living in that way is to stir up strife. It's to stir up dissension. It's to keep everybody off balance. It's to disrupt the harmony of the group. Whether it be relationship with your neighbor or within your family or in the Christian congregation. Whether it be on a private scale where you can't get along with one individual or on a large social scale where those within our society can't get along with one another because of the color of their skin or the amount of money they make or whatever else separates us. The social effect of this is to take every opportunity for criticism. To put people down, to never be satisfied. Hate stirs up strife. Proverbs says. By contrast, love covers it all over. It covers all wrongs. It is a righteous attitude reflecting the attitude of a merciful God. Who forgives the sins of others. Rather than exposing them and harping upon them. Love, you see, is highly reluctant to take offense. Now, there's going to be some difficulty if I don't elaborate on this. Because my guess is many of you are sitting there thinking, but people do things with which I just can't forget. People do things which oughtn't to be just blithefully forgotten or forgiven. People do things for which they need to repent and make restitution. Are you denying that, Dr. Bros? Are you saying that love just has this kind of Pollyanna attitude. That nobody has ever done any wrong? I don't have to ever worry about sin? No. But I am saying that this passage means to things. It means two things. Neither one of which do we excel at. But it means two things. The first of them is love requires an attitude that's not easily offended. But bears with the imperfections of others. The first thing we need to say is that if we love other people. We don't have to constantly be confronting them about their imperfections. Love is thick skinned. Love is blind. I can give you any number of other aphorisms that are common to you. But the point here is you're not always getting upset by other people. A loving attitude is willing to cover over things, to turn a blind eye to them. To not constantly think you've got a harp on a mistake. That's the first thing I think we fail at. But secondly, and in order to relieve the tension you're feeling about. Does this mean we just forget all those genuine sins against us? No. Love means an eagerness to seek reconciliation and resolution. When serious offenses cannot be immediately ignored. Love wants to cover them over. Love wants to get it taken care of. So I can't see it anymore. And in both ways you see. A charitable or loving spirit Wishes to have wrongs covered over. Removed from sight. All right, I'm going to give you two illustrations. Let's say that after I get done preaching this sermon today, I walk to the back of our auditorium. And in your haste to go get something to drink, you walk right past me and you don't greet me. This Morning. All right, let's say that later on, as we're getting ready to drive out of the parking lot, I put my briefcase down behind your car as I'm talking to someone, and you just drive right over it. Let's say that the offense is worse. Let's say that you actually placed my briefcase behind your car and then drove over it. Now, what do I do about these situations if I'm going to live up to Proverbs 10, verse 12. Love covers all transgressions. Well, I would hope that most of you would see, not in every situation, but I hope most of you would see then, in the case where you walk past the pastor and you don't greet him and so forth, that I'm going to love you enough to say, I don't think any offense was intended by that. I don't think you were slighting me. And so I'm not going to go and say, okay, this is a Matthew 18 confrontation. Now, I want you to repent for having me. No, I'm going to say, I love you. I understand. You know, you're thirsty. Go get something to drink. It's all right. May not be the best thing. Obviously, if we were all living up to 100% of all the courtesies and all of the kindnesses that God would have us, we would neglect one another on Sunday morning. But I trust if we love one another, we can do that, can't we? But now what if you back over my briefcase and it's my mistake? Does love mean I go to you and I say, well, well, now, you knucklehead, what is wrong? Why didn't you look where you were going? Do I then, you know, try to make an issue out of something when you inadvertently destroyed my wonderful briefcase? That isn't love. You say, okay, but those are easy, Pastor. It may not be easy to do. We tend to get real upset with people when it's not their fault anyway. We tend to get real upset with people when we're in a bad mood and they've really done something that isn't all that major a point. I'm saying love should be able to cover that over. But what if you maliciously place my briefcase behind your car and drove over it? In fact, you drove over it backwards and you went forwards and backwards and forwards. You wanted to make the real point that you hated me and you were going to destroy my briefcase. But love's supposed to cover over transgressions. Now, some people would say, I guess I'm just supposed to say, oh, that's so nice of you. You. Thank you. I'm supposed to say, oh, that you didn't do any. You didn't mean to do that, I'm sure, even though you went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. You see, I say this to you humorously, but I want to make the point that it's not at all what this passage demands. But if you maliciously destroy my briefcase and I love you, that means I want to get it out of sight. I want to do something that's going to cover it over. I want to get to you as quick, quickly as I can. The Bible says, before the sun goes down on my wrath. The Bible says, before I go into another act of worship, I leave my gift at the altar and I go and I seek you. And I say, it really wasn't right for you to do that in my briefcase. What did I do to offend you that made you retaliate in that way? Let me apologize for what I've done wrong. I'd like you to apologize for what you've done wrong. I want to be, you know, your brother in the Lord. And I do that because I can't stand going a day thinking, I guess that person doesn't like me. Now, I know every one of you have gone through that experience where someone has done something or said something, and you brood about it and you fret about it and it makes you feel really low. And then sometimes you retaliate. You say, well, they don't like me. I won't like them. So you start beating up on their briefcase. You start doing things that will tear them down. Love means going and getting reconciliation so that you no longer see it. And the reason you no longer see it is because it's forgiven. It's not like in the case where you say, well, I don't have to worry about this person getting their juice before they greeted me. I can overlook that. Nope, I'm not going to lose sleep over that. No, in the second kind of situation, it's when I can't overlook that that was a terrible thing to do. But I don't want to remember it anymore more. I want to put it behind us. And to do that, that means I have to go to the person and seek resolution. Now, not only is this understanding of love and hate crucial to what the law of God requires of us, as Jesus quotes it, it's interesting to me that three times the New Testament quotes this proverb. That's how important it is in terms of understanding New Testament ethics as well. Look briefly at those passages. First Peter, the fourth chapter, verse eight, First Peter four, eight. And in this context, Peter says, above all things, be fervent in your love among yourselves. If you remember our preaching series on Peter, Peter says, floorboard it when it comes to love. Really excited at this, fervently love one another. And then he adds, because love will cover a multitude of sins. That's the effect of love. Then look at James, the fifth chapter, verse 20, right toward the end of the book of James, the 19th verse, says, My brothers, if any among you err from the truth and one convert him, let him know that he who converts a sin sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins. And then finally, First Corinthians, the 13th chapter, which all of you will recognize immediately as the love chapter. First Corinthians 13. Beginning at verse four, we have this description of love. Love is long suffering. There's the pastor not being greeted, says, no problem. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love envies not love wants not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not its own. Now notice this is not provoked. Are you easily provoked? If so, you're not. Loving takes not account of evil. Love doesn't keep a scorecard. Love doesn't add up. Things against the other person rejoices not in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Do you know somebody toward whom you're not bearing all things? Do you know somebody whose actions and words tend to provoke you? Do you know someone against whom you're keeping an account of evil? The Bible says you don't love that person. Love covers it over. Love bears with everything. And love does that in the way that I've described, either by being patient enough to not be provoked every time some minor thing happens, or when some major offense comes up, being willing to say, I want it resolved. Now, back in the Book of Proverbs, chapter 10, just back up two verses from our text this morning in Proverbs 10:12. And you notice in verse 10, he that winketh with the eye causeth causeth sorrow. But a prating fool shall fall in this verse, verse 10, as you see it in many English translations. I believe there's been a scribal error. Reproduced in the English translation. You'll see that at the end of verse eight, a prating fool shall fall. Many scholars believe that accidentally early on in the tracing of the Masoretic or he Hebrew text that we often use, the end of verse 8 floated down to the end of verse 10 as well. It was an error of the eye. And that's one of these things that sticks with us. The reason why we suspect that that doesn't really belong there is not only because the contrast is a rather awkward or mismatched one, but in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which follows a different, different manuscript tradition than the Masoretic text. In the Greek translation we read But a frank rebuke makes for peace, which seems to fit so much better there and does have that attestation that the Septuagint the Greek translation supports it. In verse 10 then we read the person who winks with the eye causes sorrow, but a frank rebuke makes for peace. There are those who think they can just kind of wink things away, just take it lightly, the Bible says. But it's an open, a frank rebuke that brings peace. The person who tries to slough things off with a wink doesn't secure peace. And you know that because you've tried that, haven't you? You've tried to do just say, well, I'll just wink at that. I'm not going to worry about that. It doesn't work. But if you go and openly rebuke your neighbor, openly rebuke your husband, openly rebuke your wife, your child, your fellow believer in the congregation, if you do that, then peace can be secured. Proverbs 10:18 look at the dilemma of the person who hates. He that hides hatred is of lying lips, and he that utters a slander is a fool. If you conceal hatred in your heart, if you harbor a secret hostility towards someone, then you're going to be placed in the horns of a dilemma when you're called on to speak about them, aren't you? Because if you don't like someone and you've got to talk about them and you say something nice, you're a hypocrite. You're a liar. On the other hand, if you put them down and slap slander them, you're a fool. And so Proverbs 10:18 is a great verse. It says, if you hate, you're in trouble, you're not going to avoid sin. Because if you hate and you talk about the person you hate, you're either going to lie or you're going to slander, and either way you're going to sin. And so you say, well, what do I do if I Hate the person. Stop hating them. Learn to love them. Take the biblical steps necessary to prove Put away whatever stands between you and begin to love them as they are to be loved. Proverbs 17:9. I need to move right along here. He that covers a transgression seeks love, but he that harpeth on a matter separates chief friends. This verse actually inverts what we've Read in Proverbs 10:12. Proverbs 10:12 tells us that love covers transgressions. Now we read the person who covers transgressions seeks love, which is to say, you've got a circle. The person who seeks to cover transgressions is after love, and the person who's after love seeks to cover transgressions. They lead to one another. They're virtually, at least in practice, identical with one another. But here the opposite of the loving attitude of overlooking a fault is so clearly expressed in the second line that we we can't help but stop and examine ourselves. We read here, he who harps on a matter separates chief friends. The person who harps on a matter is the very opposite of the lover, and even best friends cannot survive that kind of behavior. My guess is, you know, a few tragic situations in your life where you found that out. People who harp on a matter can't even you can't keep chief friends, even best of friends, together. Forgiving sin promotes love between people, but nurturing hurts. Nurturing differences only promotes conflict and must produce separation. You know it's true in friendship. How much more is it true in marital love? How much more is it true in terms of our life as the body of Christ? Christ. Friendship can only survive in an atmosphere of mutual and willing forgiveness. What Proverbs sets before us here is the person who can't let an issue die. He or she continues to bring up past faults, sometimes overtly, sometimes subtly. This is the person who utters a criticism not once, but repeatedly, even after it's supposed to have been acknowledged, even after the matter supposed to have been resolved. Here's the person who separates even the best of friends through nagging, remembering the bad record, creating in the other person an apprehension about seeing you or dealing with you, and creating within yourself a far worse spiritual condition that we call censoriousness. The censorious person who always knows what other people are doing wrong. I'm telling you, that's not love, that's hatred. He who harps on a matter separates the best of friends. Then one Last passage, Proverbs 19:11 the discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. Discretion means good sense. A man with good sense. And what we find here is that a person who has good sense will have glory. It will bring a glory to him, meaning a positive reputation for virtue, a beauty or an adornment about his life. A man with good sense will have an adorning life who will have a glory about him. And the specific expression of that glorious good sense is a patient and magnanimous spirit. A person who is slow to anger and who will overlook an occasion for offense. There's the Christ like individual. There's the man who doesn't have to always be defending his rights. There's the man who's not always saying I'm right and you're wrong. Always, always correcting others. There's the man who's not always getting upset and irritated when people do things or say things that he doesn't like. There's the man who is able to stand back and patiently overlook it. Well, let's hold up the mirror of God's word to ourselves today, friends. Love and hate are awfully important matters. And when you hold up this mirror, so what do you see? The word of God says, if you love, you're slow to anger. You overlook offenses, you conceal matters, you don't harp on them. But if you hate, you dig up things, you take easy offense, you're unwilling to let peace come in a situation. When you look into that mirror, I think you have to admit there's far more hatred than there is love to be found in all of us. And so here we again we have Proverbs telling us how we're supposed to live our lives, how we're to be wise, how we're to be righteous, how we're to be loving this morning. And lo and behold, what we end up seeing is that we fail again. We're just miserable in our sin. Well, there's one other act application of this Proverbs 10:12 text that I took this morning that I want to mention here. In closing though, we read that love covers all transgressions. Who is it, do you think, above all that demonstrates that kind of love that covers all transgressions. The word for covering over is used in the Old Testament for the effect of the animal sacrifices that were brought to the altar. Altar. The blood of those sacrifices covered over the sins of God's people in the sense that he no longer saw them. The blood as it were, blotted them from sight so that God could receive his people and forgive them. And the Bible tells us that's the supreme demonstration of love. In the New Testament, we read of a servant who wouldn't forgive his fellow servant a very slight financial debt, let's say roughly $5 in our money. And yet that same servant was hopeful for and was just so glad to receive, in his own case, a forgiveness of a million dollar debt to the Master. You know, what little we forgive in one another can't even be compared compared to the huge amount that God forgives in us. And that's the supreme illustration of love. Who is it that's covered over sins better than anyone else, more consistently, more exhaustively, more thoroughly and perfectly than anyone else? Well, it's our God through his Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, that our sins would be covered over and blotted from sight so that we would be received by him. Proverbs 10:12. I think when all is said and done may come very close to being the heart of the whole biblical message. Not only for the way we're supposed to live toward one another, not only for the ethic of the Old and New Testament brought together, but above all because all of that is founded in the character and the activity of God himself in graciously saving us. And so, do you love or do you hate? If you, like me, see yourself as far too much a hater than a lover, then our only hope this morning is to go to the One who knows how to love above all and ask that he would cover over our transgressions so that we might learn all the more how to cover over those of others. We said it in the Lord. Lord's Prayer. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Let's pray. Father, we ask you to drive home to our hearts this lesson that is so central to your word, this lesson that in a sense summarizes the good news of the Scriptures and which tells us how we should live if we are to be godlike people. We ask you to forgive us of our hatefulness, our pettiness, our grouchiness, our unwillingness to be reconciled with others. We pray you would forgive us for being so unloving and that you would fill our hearts not only with gratitude because you have loved us far more than we could ever love others and forgive them, but that you would fill our hearts with a true sense of love for those that often are unlovable, that you would fill our hearts with love, love for those with whom we live, that you would fill our hearts with love for those who are our fellow believers in Christ, members of our church here in this congregation, that you would fill our hearts with love toward all those with whom we come into contact, that we might be willing to demonstrate the character of our God and thereby be a testimony to him. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ who loved us unto death. Amen.