Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
Love must be fervent, not lukewarm, because whoever burns with self-love grows cold toward others. Its fruit is burial of innumerable sins: those who love one another forgive kindly and bury each other's vices willingly. Where hatred reigns, men tear each other apart; love alone restores peace.
AI summary
We have here an awful position or doctrine, and an inference drawn from it. The position is that the end of all things is at hand. The miserable destruction of the Jewish church and nation foretold by our Saviour is now very near; consequently, the time of their persecution and your sufferings is but very short.
Commenting on 1 Peter 4:7-11
This love must be fervent among all the saints everywhere, Jews and Gentiles alike, not lukewarm as it often is. Without it, all outward sobriety and prayer are nothing; it is the sum of the law. Love covers others' sins from the sight of men by thinking no ill and putting the best construction on their words and deeds.
AI summary