Forgiveness.

"Ours is a mission of grace and peace; we are not prosecutors who search out
condemnatory evidence, but friends whose love would cover a multitude of offences.
The peeping eyes of Canaan, the son of Ham, shall never be in our employ; we prefer
the pious delicacy of Shem and Japheth, who went backward and covered the shame
which the child of evil had published with glee".

I witnessed a friend the other night in the midst of a heated dispute with the friends.  It was an interesting study in the the failings of conflict management, both parties determined to make their point and will more resonating than the other, all the while any sense of cooperation and communication dissipating into the night air. What was remarkable about the discussion is there was little disagreement into the two ideas at the heart of the conflict, nay, it was for some parts the same idea. Yet, the the ideas that were at the center of it were not the core of the dispute. the core stemmed from other, unspoken conflicts, other disappointments, deeply buried words and scars they had inflicted upon each other that had never been fully vetted, or healed.


We never choose to go to battle over a single issue, or a single wound to the heart. The forces of the world are never delivered by ranged artillery, rather, they are constant, guerrilla style assaults coming from all angles and directions. We rarely venture forth with hearts filled with compromise and understanding. We wield clenched fists and vicious words meant to tear down an adversary instead of discovering a place of peace.

There isn't a why question into why we do this. We know why we do it. We are sinful people in a broken world. And while the degree of which we let pour out over each other varies, we tend to make very poor arbiters of righteousness.


I love how Spurgeon talks of love covering expenses. We can draw an analogy to insurance. Love insurance. If you've hurt a Friend, don't worry, love insurance has it covered. If you've spoken harshly to a co-worker, worry not, Love insurance has it covered. What an insurance payout that comes with loving others!


Romans 13:8 says,  "Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law"

Paul points to the fact that we so often look to make things right by our own accord when we don't even understand what justice is. We have our own justice we maintain as part of a society, but that isn't the justice of God. Isaiah 64 says, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."

We have enough insurance to cover our faults and the faults of others.  If you haven't bought into a new policy lately, think about making an investment.