Love is Blind

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

(1 Peter 4:8 ESV)

We’ve all heard the adage: “Love is blind.” What’s meant by this is that, when people are in love, they don’t see one another’s faults. It’s as if they’re blind to them.

People who’ve been married for some time often use this phrase as a form of ridicule. We laugh at those who’ve recently fallen into love believing them to be naïve. We laugh at young love knowing that both people in the relationship are overlooking the flaws in the object of their affection. We laugh knowing that, one day, those flaws will become apparent. We laugh knowing that they aren’t entering into the relationship logically.

We assume that, if they saw the flaws in their partner, they would likely rethink the relationship. We assume that, if they saw these flaws, they may even break off the relationship. We believe that, if they understood what they were getting into, they would end the relationship before it even began.

We’ll never find the perfect person with whom to enter into a relationship. Everyone with whom we fall in love is flawed. I’ve often told couples that, if they end their current relationship in favor of another, they will only trade ten problems for ten new problems. We’re all sinners, after all.

Yet, as much as we scoff at young love because it is blind, this is what Peter is calling us to in the above verse. He’s not addressing romantic love, in this passage, although his words can apply to it. He’s primarily addressing our relationships with one another.

He encourages us, as believers, to love one another earnestly. Our love for one another is to be sincere. It’s to be zealous. And we’re to love one another in this way because love covers over a multitude of sins.

Peter is saying that, if we love one another in this way, their sins will be hidden from our sight. We’ll be blind to them. If we love others, we won’t be intently searching out their flaws. If we love others, we’ll assume the best about them. And if we love others, rather than exposing their sin, we’ll do what we can to help them deal with it.

Hate does the exact opposite. It intentionally seeks out the sin in others. It assumes the worst about them. And it does so that it might make public their shortcomings.

As faithful as we believe ourselves to be, this is how we often live with each other. We live not in a spirit of love, but hate. We seek only to hide our sin while, at the same time, we expose the trespasses of others.

May we repent of this attitude. And may we live as Peter calls us. May we love one another earnestly. And may we do so knowing that, in this way, we’re covering over a host of sins.