1 Peter 4

1 Peter 4 Commentary

by Brad Boyles

Arm yourself! This is a powerful opening in 1 Peter 4. Our thought process regarding suffering is not some crazy or impossible goal to strive for. It is the mindset that Christ had and the same mindset He’s given us by His Spirit. We voluntarily accept all things in suffering, including death, knowing that we are persecuted but not destroyed.

Peter then moves into how we deal with difficult relationships within the church. He writes that “love covers a multitude of sins.” This means that when we commit to loving others (even when they bother us), we can more easily bear with them in their faults. The IVP Commentary relays an accurate and hilarious example of what this looks like today.

“There in your local church is Ann, who doesn’t know much about hygiene and is frankly ‘smelly.’ Bill wears you out with incessant talking. Cathy is unspiritual. Don doesn’t get along with Evelyn. Fred treats his wife badly. Gene is a gauche teenager, never knowing how to act with courtesy and discretion. Hilary often grumbles.

Irene has a different set of interests and values (she can’t come to the Tuesday-evening prayer meeting because it clashes with the local Amnesty International group). And so on it goes. There is Kevin, to be sure, who is really quite saintly but rather drab as a person. None of them is very easy to love at full stretch. (There is also, of course, myself, and I figure in other people’s lists of difficult people for similar reasons.)

And yet love is the answer to the problem. We find a whole host of offenses, real and imagined, in other people, and only love will overcome them and regard them as of no account because love covers over a multitude of sins.”

IVP New Testament Commentary

It is a fascinating thought. True love does not stir up sins. True love does not allow sin to disrupt your commitment level. This is because the love Peter is describing is not based on other people thinking and acting the way we think they should. Our love is rooted in Christ’s love – which was extended generously to us at the cross.

“Intense love; for love shall cover a multitude of sins. A loving disposition leads us to pass by the faults of others, to forgive offenses against ourselves, and to excuse and lessen, as far as is consistent with truth, the transgressions of men. It does not mean that our love to others will induce God to pardon our offenses.

Adam Clarke