Today is the Sunday After the Ascension as celebrated by the Extraordinary Rite (Traditional Latin Rite) of the Catholic Church. The Epistle reading got me thinking about my Protestant/Separated Brethren again. Let's read it...
I Peter 4: 7-11
Dearly beloved, Be prudent and watch in prayers. But before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves: for charity coevereth a multitude of sins. Using hospitality one towards another, without murmuring: as every man hath received grace, ministering the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak, as the words of God: if any minister, let him do it, as of the power which God administereth: that in all things God may be honored through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The thought occurred to me, if, as according to Protestant belief, Jesus has already covered all our sins and nothing we do changes this, then how could "charity cover a multitude of sins?" We are to use hospitality towards each other - and do so without murmuring. As we have received grace, we are to minister that grace to one another - as what? As good stewards of the manifold grace of God!
James 5:20 gives us a similar message:
He must know that he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.
Again, the converting of a sinner covers a multitude of sins.
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