1st Peter Chapter 4 verse 8 Holy Bible

1st Peter 4 : 8 Bible Verse Songs

• Deeper in Love - Take Me Deeper by Don Moen
• Greater Than Your Love by Elevation Worship
• Dear Me by Nichole Nordeman
• Love by We Are Messengers + Mali Music
• Beyond Me by Yadah
• Power Of Love by Jekalyn Carr
• What Other Love by Fox And Foal
• Love Divine by New Life Worship
• Love Will Keep Us Alive by Fortune/Walker/Rogers/Isaacs
• God Knows (Must Be Love) by Andrew Ripp

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 8. - And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves; more literally, before all things, having your love towards one another intense. The existence of charity is taken for granted. Christians must love one another; love is the very badge of their profession. The apostle urges his readers to keep that love intense, and that before all things; for charity is the first of Christian graces. (On the word "intense" (ἐκτενής), see note on 1 Peter 1:22.) For charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Read and translate, with the Revised Version, for love covereth a multitude of sins. If St. Peter is directly quoting Proverbs 10:12, he is not using the Septuagint, as he commonly does, but translating from the Hebrew. The Septuagint rendering is quite different, Πάντας δὲ τοὺς μὴ φιλονεικοῦντας καλύπτει φιλία. But it may be that the words had become proverbial. We find them also in James 5:20, "He which converteth the sinner... shall hide a multitude of sins." St. James means that he will obtain God's forgiveness for the converted sinner; but in Proverbs 10:12 the meaning (as is plain from the context) is that love covers the sins of others; does not stir up strifes, as hatred does, but promotes concord by concealing and forgiving sins. This is probably St. Peter's meaning here: "Take care that your charity is intense, for only thus can you forgive as you are bidden to forgive, as you hope to be forgiven." Perhaps he was thinking of the "seventy times seven," to which the Lord had told him that forgiveness was to extend. But his words may well be understood as implying more than this. Love shown in forgiving others will win forgiveness for yourselves: "Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven." Love manifested in converting others will cover their sins, and obtain God's forgiveness for them. In the deepest sense, it is only the love of Christ energizing in his atoning work which can cover sin; but true charity, Christian love, flows from that holiest love. "Love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." Therefore in some sense Christian love, flowing from the love of Christ, and bringing the Christian very near to Christ, covers sins; for it keeps the Christian close to the cross, within the immediate sphere of the blessed influences of the atonement, so that he becomes a center of grace, a light kindled from the true Light, a well of living waters fed by the one fountain which is opened for sin and for uncleanness. The mutual love of Christians, their kindly words and deeds, check the work of sin; their prayers, their intercessions, call down the forgiveness of God. Therefore, in the view of the approaching end, charity is before all things precious for our own souls and for the souls of others.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(8) And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves.--The original is far more vigorous: But before all things keeping intense your charity towards yourselves. St. Peter assumes that the charity is there, but insists on its not being suffered to flag in outward expression. (Comp. the same word in 1Peter 1:22; also in Luke 22:44; Acts 12:5; Acts 26:7.)Shall cover.--Properly, neither "shall" nor "will," the right reading being present, covereth. The words are usually said to be a quotation from Proverbs 10:12, "Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins;" but they are widely different from the LXX. in that passage, and also vary from the Hebrew; and as precisely the same variation occurs in James 5:20, it seems more probable either that St. Peter had the passage of St. James consciously in his mind, or that the proverb was current and familiar to both writers in the form, "Love covereth a multitude of sins." It is, therefore, unsafe to argue from the exact shade of meaning which the words bear in Proverbs 10:12. To "cover," in Hebrew, often means to "forgive," the idea being that of an offensive object which you bury or hide by putting something else over it; see, for examples, Psalm 32:1; Psalm 85:2; and the place in Proverbs seems to mean that whereas a bitter enemy will rake up every old grudge again and again, one who loves will not allow even himself to see the wrongs done to him by a friend. If this sense be accepted here, it will imply that the Christians in Asia had a good deal to put up with from each other; but even so, the argument seems a little strained: "Keep your charity at its full stretch, because charity forgives, however many the wrongs may be." It far better suits the context to take the proverb in the same sense as in St. James, without any reference to the Old Testament passage. In St. James it is usually taken to mean, "He shall save (the convert's) soul from death, and shall cover (i.e., procure for him the pardon of) a multitude of sins;" but as the true reading there is "his soul," it is more natural to suppose that St. James is holding up, as the reward of converting the sinner, that the person who does so shall save his own soul, and procure for himself the pardon of a multitude of sins. So here it seems obvious that St. Peter is urging charity as something which will be found advantageous when the "end of all things" comes; and the advantage he mentions is, "because charity covereth a multitude of sins:" i.e., the exercise of this grace makes up for a great many other shortcomings in the man. A very good case might be made out for a doctrine of Justification by Love. . . .