covered by love

rich stuff from ray ortlund's article in the february issue of tabletalk:

"Peter shows how heavenly love behaves. He writes, "Love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). Before we knew the love of Christ, we gave away our love to people according to how they performed for us. If they measured up to our expectations, we loved them well. But if they let us down, the relationship cooled off. And if they betrayed us, we had no more love for them. Then the gospel came to us, revealing God's earnest love for us not only when our performance fell short but even when we hated Him. Now we are learning to recalibrate our relationships with one another in a Godlike way.... Rather than trot out the offender's sin for everyone to see, rather than embarrass the offender, love submerges his offense - and not just one sin now and then but a "multitude of sins." This heavenly love is not easy. But it is of God, and it is beautiful."