LOVE AND HATE

Hate gets even. Love not only tolerates, it shields others.
"Love always protects." The original Greek verb translated into English as "protect," means to cover, to pass over in silence, to keep confidential. It's like a roof. When we want to stop discussion of something we may say that we want to 'put a lid on it.' Love throws a cloak of silence over what is displeasing in another person. "Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs." (Proverbs 10:12) "Love covers over a multitude of sins." (1 Peter 4:8) Love finds a way to shelter the wrongdoer from exposure and condemnation. This is how God has treated us. "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." (Psalm 32:1) Nowhere is this more illustrated than in the incident of the woman taken in the act of adultery (John 8:1-11). Jesus bowed down and wrote with his finger on the ground. He who knows everything, knew even what the scribes and the Pharisees knew before they came tattling to him. They were out for blood. Jesus protected the woman. How do we do with shielding others?