Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.
Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins. "Stirreth up" - literally, as one lifting up a spear which before had been at rest. So the Hebrew х `owreer (H5782)] in 2 Samuel 23:18. So hatred disturbs the existing quiet by railings; stirs up dormant quarrels on mere suspicions and trifles, and by unfavourable constructions put on everything, even upon acts of kindness. As hatred by quarrels exposes the faults of others, so 'love covers' them; except in so far as brotherly correction requires their exposure. The reference is not to the covering of our sins before God, but the covering of our fellow-men's sins in respect to others. Love condones, yea, takes no notice of a friend's errors. The disagreements which "hatred stirreth up," love allays; and the offences which are usually the causes of quarrel, it sees as though it saw them not, and excuses them (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). It gives to men the forgiveness which it daily craves from God. It condones past offences, covers present, and guards against future ones (Gejer). (1 Peter 4:8, note.) To abuse this precept into a warrant for silencing all faithful reproofs of sin in others would be to ascribe to charity the office of a procuress (T. Cartwright). Leviticus 19:17-18, plainly tells us in the same context, "Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer ... Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," and (as the act of true love) "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him."