Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.”

If you had a choice to choose how people would always treat you either with love or hate, which one would you pick?  Love.  Why?  Everyone loves love.  Even people who hate others like gangs still choose to love each other as a family.  Therefore, there is no one who really wants hate all the time, everyone down deep inside really wants love.

Now consider this, Jesus said in Luke 6:31, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  Therefore, you and I are to treat people not like how they treat us but rather how we want to be treated.  And how do we want to be treated?  With love.  Thus, we should then love people even when they commit wrongs against us.

King Solomon in the above proverb is teaching a simple lesson- hatred causes dissension (more trouble) and love covers (forgives) all wrongs.  Now someone might say, “But ‘So and So’ doesn’t deserve to be forgiven because of what they did to me!”  However, Jesus is not teaching that we should love and forgive people because they deserve it, but rather because it is the right thing to do.  Just like the ole’ saying goes, “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

As a result, we can be sure that in life people will do wrong against us and make us angry.  In those times we have a choice to either hate them and cause more problems for them and ourselves or love and forgive them.  Biblical forgiveness doesn’t mean accepting one’s behavior as right, but rather doing what is right for Jesus’ sake.

For example, when the Roman soldiers crucified Jesus and He said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing,” Luke 23:34.  He wasn’t saying they were “okay” or “right” in what they did.  No, as a matter of fact, if people who sin against us don’t personally ask God to forgive them, they will be punished in eternal fire for their sins.  God even says, “vengeance is mine,” Romans 12:19.

Therefore, the decision is yours when you are wronged in life you can either love or hate- I pray you choose to love!

Reflection

When you are wronged do you act in love or hate?

Action

  1. Ask God to forgive your sins as you forgive those who sin against you.
  2. Next time you’re offended remember to choose love over hate.
  3. Pray for those who wrong you to repent and live by God’s commands.