Mood:  a-ok

Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses

Luke 7:47  "Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven, hence she has shown great love...."

James 5:20 You should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul and cover a multitude of sins

1 Peter  4:8  Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins

(from the NRSV)

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As I remember, Bible commentators have made the point that in Hebrew, sins are "covered." The Hebrew verb would be "kaphar,"  translated "cover," as well as "appease, forgive, pardon, reconcile." (The same root is found in yom ha-kippurim, "Day of Atonement," the last word being plural in form, suggesting that in atonement, the Deity is busily forgiving many offenses, an optiimistic view of the matter. "Atonement," by the way, is not from Latin at all, as I once imagined, but comes to us via English, i.e., at-one-ment, the reconciliation between ourselvers and Heaven). This idiom enters the New Testament via James, that somewhat Hebrew section of Christian scripture, and it also makes an appearance in 1 Peter. 

In scripture, "love covers all offenses," meaning, I believe, that a loving personality is forgiven; the meaning of love, in Proverbs (10:12) includes abandoning, not exercising, hatred. That love of which the OT wisdom tradition (of which the book of Proverbs is an important part) speaks, freely forgives all the offenses committed against itself. A loving personality does not carry a grudge, much less treasur ite, but deals with any injury through forgiveness. The readiness to forgive, to move past the failing of another and go forward with God's grace, is the horizontal dimension of love; the vertical dimension, between ourselves and Heaven, is shown in the NT story of "a woman in the city, who was a sinner" (Luke 7:37), who bathed Jesus' feet with her tears.  Jesus then declared the forgiveness of her sins (Luke 7:48) and added, remarkably, in dismissing her, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

The woman's tears may be a sign of contrition, sorrow for sin, or a witness to the absolute dead end that wrong choices had led her to. Turning to the Nazarene was a last, desperate gamble, that paid off magnificently.  Jesus' words of dismissal, that her faith had saved her, reminds us of Paul's glorious good news, that salvation comes through faith, and, it appears, in Paul's thinking, faith is that state which one reaches when all else, every pious striving, every act of devotion, fails to reconcile us to God. The peace sought by the "woman in the city, who was a sinner," comes from God through Christ, not from our own actions or righteousness. In desperation, having exhausted every other avenue and means, we turn to God in Christ and throw ourselves on the divine mercy. Then, through Christ, our missing the mark, repeatedly, is "covered," and we have peace with God, mentioned in Christ's words to the "woman in the city." 

An earlier translation of this story, in the KJV, rendered the crucial conjunction "hence" (for this reason, therefore) as "for" (because), with the resulting translation  "her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much" (reconstructed from Strong's Concordance). The Greek original that ties the two clauses together is "hoti," (because).

Now that poses a theological question, which, interestingly, the NRSV translators have resisted: a plain reading of the Lucan text strongly suggests that great love covers one's own sins.