Love Covers

I Peter 4:8

"Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins."

Love covers.  Think of a bed and how a bedspread covers the bed.  Or think of a person fully dressed.  The clothing covers their bodies.  That's what our love should do.  Our love should cover one another's sins.  Not to hide their sins and allow secrets to grow into more sin, but to cover their sins instead of exposing it to the world.  (God clearly instructs us to help a brother out of sin--but we start privately.)  If we truly love someone, we'll cover them.     


If we don't love, we expose.  We tell friends and family what this person has done.  It becomes a juicy piece of gossip for me to spread.  


Am I loving you by covering you?  Or am I exposing you?  


It makes me think of the story of Noah.  In Genesis 9, it tells the story of how Noah became drunk and lay in his tent naked.  He was uncovered.  Ham, his son, saw his nakedness and went outside and told his brothers.  (I can hear him laughing about it!)  He "exposed" his father.  Those 2 brothers went into the tent backwards and "covered" the nakedness of their father.  When Noah awoke, he cursed Ham's descendants and blessed the other two brother's descendants.


This verse isn't a suggestion.  It's a command.  Love each other in this way.  Cover each other.