Proverbs - Cover Transgressions

Proverbs 17:9

                                                                     

He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

Sometimes when we are sinned against we want to pull others into our pain.  We are told that we are to cover a transgression if we are to seek love.   When someone sins against us we should commit it to the Lord and seek Him for His heart of grace and forgiveness.  We must be careful about who we repeat it to even after the offense has been forgiven.  Telling others about a sin can separate close friends.  We can often leave out some details or present the situation in a way that the hearer is shocked or appalled and leave them in a place where they have to work through it.  In the multitude of words, sin is not lacking.  When we begin to talk to a friend and recount some story involving sin, we should stop and not bring attention to the sin.  We can share a general account that an offense was made and the Lord healed the relationship without repeating the matter.  We don’t need to give a play by play account of what our adversary has done.  He doesn’t deserve the air time.  We should rather repeat, detail by detail all that the Lord has done and magnify Him with others.

 If we need godly counsel, seek to recount the matter to one who is in some sort of spiritual authority in your life or perhaps is a bit removed from the knowledge of the offender.  This would be still seeking love because you are attempting to cover the sin and only bring it to the light in the appropriate environment.  When we forgive we can choose to not bring things to remembrance.  This will make us like our God who remembers our sins no more.