Proverbs 10:12: Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.
Insight
Here is a simple but forceful contrast. Hatred, however disguised by a smooth exterior, is the selfish principle of man. Like an underground fire, it constantly stirs up mischief and creates or keeps alive envy and criticisms. When this dissension is set on fire, God’s name is greatly dishonored. Is this not a matter for much prayer, watchfulness, and resistance? Love covers, overlooks, speedily forgives, and forgets. Full of candor and inventiveness, it puts the best construction on doubtful matters and does not expose the faults of a brother. Oh, let us put on the Lord Jesus in his spirit of forbearing, sacrificial love, and let us forgive as we have been forgiven by Christ. 1
Application
Carefully read and study 1 Corinthians 13:4–7. How much of this kind of love describes your life? What areas need His grace to improve? “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
Motivation
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. John 13:1
To stir up love is much better than stirring up hatred. – TWEET IT
Prayer
Father, please allow me to become a lover of God and of others.
1. Bridges, C. (2001). Proverbs (p. 70). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
