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1Pe_4:8. πρὸ πάντων δέ ] cf. Jam_5:12.
τὴν εἰς ἑαυτοὺς (i.e. ἀλλήλους ) ἀγάπην ἐκτενῆ ἔχοντες . The second exhortation. The participle shows that this and the first exhortation belong closely together. Luther translates inexactly: “have … a burning love.” Love one to another, as the characteristic sign (Joh_13:35) of Christians, is presupposed; the apostle’s exhortation is directed to this, that the love should be ἐκτενής (Bengel: amor jam praesupponitur, ut sit vehemens, praecipitur).
For ἐκτενής , cf. chap. 1Pe_1:22. There is nothing to show that the apostle gave expression to this exhortation with special reference to the circumstance “that in the case of his readers brotherly love was united with danger and persecution” (Schott).
ὅτι [ ἡ ] ἀγάπη καλύπτει πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν ] A proverbial saying after Pro_10:12 : ùÒÄðÀàÈä úÌÀòÉøÅø îÀãÈðÄéí åÀòÇì áÌÈìÎôÌÀùÑÈòÄéí úÌÀëÇñÌÆä àÇäÂáÈä (the second half is incorrectly translated by the LXX. πάντας δὲ τοὺς μὴ φιλονεικοῦντας καλύπτει φιλία ): “Love covereth (maketh a covering over) all sins.” The sense of the words is evident from the first half of the verse; whilst hatred stirs up strife and contention (by bringing the sins of others to the light of day), love, with forgiving gentleness, covers the sins of others (and thus works concord).[247]
In its original meaning, accordingly, the proverb has reference to what love does as regards the sins of others; love in its essential nature is forgiveness, and that not of some, but of many sins; 1Co_13:5; 1Co_13:7; Mat_18:21-22. In this sense Estius, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Piscator, Steiger, Wiesinger, Weiss (p. 337 f.), Schott, Fronmüller, etc., have rightly interpreted the passage, which then, serving as the basis of the preceding exhortation,[248] is intended to set forth the blessed influence of love on life in the church. Hofmann unjustly denies this (Beza: caritatem mutuam commendat ex eo, quod innumerabilia peccata veluti sepeliat, ac proinde pacis ac concordiae sit fautrix et conservatrix. Wiesinger: “Only by the forgiving, reconciling influence of love, can the destructive power of sin be kept away from church life”). Steiger (with whom Weiss and Fronmüller agree) explains: “the apostle recommends the Christians to extend the limits of brotherly love and to strengthen themselves in it, because true love covers a multitude of sins;” but this is not to the point, inasmuch as the covering of many sins is peculiar to the ἀγάπη itself, and constitutes the reason why it should be ἐκτενής . Several expositors (Grotius, etc.) understand the words to have the same meaning here as in Jam_5:20 (see Comment. in loc.), that is, that love in effecting the sinner’s conversion, procures the divine forgiveness for his many sins; but, on the one hand, “the apostle does not here regard his readers as erring brethren, of whom it might be the duty of some to convert the others” (Wiesinger); and, on the other, “there is here not the slightest indication that the expression is not to be understood directly of the covering of sins as such, but of reclaiming labours” (Weiss).
Oecumenius already ( ὁ μὲν γὰρ εἰς τὸν πλησίον ἔλεος , τὸν Θεὸν ἡμῖν ἵλεων ποιεῖ ), and after him many Catholic expositors (Salmeron, Cornelius a Lapide, Lorinus, etc.), and several Protestants also (the latter sometimes, whilst distinctly defending the Protestant principle against Catholic applications of the passage[249]), understand the maxim of the blessing which love brings to him who puts it into practice. But if Peter had wished to express a thought similar to that uttered by Christ, Mat_6:14-15, he would assuredly not have made use of words such as these, which in the nature of them bear not upon personal sins, but on those of others.[250]
[247] As opposed to the view that Peter had this passage in his mind, de Wette asserts, that in “that case the apostle must have translated from the Hebrew the passage incorrectly rendered by the LXX. This, however, is in itself improbable, as he would then have written πάσας τὰς ἁμαρτίας , or rather, πάντα τὰ ἀδικήματα (cf. Pro_17:9).” But though it may be questioned whether Peter quoted directly from it, there can be no doubt, as even Brückner, Wiesinger, and Weiss admit, that the proverbial phrase arose out of that passage.
[248] Hottinger: ὅτι indicare videtur (better: indicat) incitamentum aliquod, quo christianis amor iste commendatur.
[249] Vorstius: intelligit Ap. caritatem in causa esse, ut non tantum proximi nostri peccata humaniter tegamus, verum etiam ut Deus nobis ex pacto gratuito nostra peccata condonet, non quod propter meritum seu dignitatem caritatis id fiat, sed quia caritas erga fratres conditio est, sine qua Deus nobis ignoscere non vult.
[250] De Wette gives a peculiar combination of the various interpretations: “As the love which is required of us is a common love, so the writer refers to the common sins still defacing the whole of Christian social life, but which, as single blemishes(!), are overshone, and made pardonable in God’s eye, by the light of that love which penetrates all; that is, in that this love produces mutual reconciliation and improvement.” On this Brückner remarks, that what is true here is the thought that reciprocalness is a characteristic not of love only, but of all her actions, i.e. “He whose love covers the sins of others, sees in like manner his own sins covered by the love of others.” But this makes “the interpretation only more artificial, and removes it still farther from the simple phraseology of our passage “(Weiss).—Clemens Al. and Bernhard of Clairvaux (Sermo 23 in Cant.) understand ἀγάπη to mean the love of Christ(!).