Proverbs 17:9
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He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.
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Love and friendship are arts taught by wisdom - they are learned behavior. All men are naturally arrogant, envious, hateful, malicious, selfish, and vengeful (Rom 1:29-31; II Tim 3:2-3; Tit 3:3). Only God's grace can save a man from these evil tendencies, then love and friendship are easily learned by wisdom (8:9; 14:6; Tit 3:4-7). Dale Carnegie's ideas on winning friends and influencing people are very inferior to Solomon's wisdom!
Have you learned love and friendship? Are you a loving friend? Do others rejoice in your friendship? Do you have many friends? True love and friendship overlook and forget personal offences against you; but foolish men will bring them up and destroy peaceful relationships. True love and friendship never repeat a person's failures or sins to others, but foolish men will be backbiting, talebearing, and whispering (10:12; 11:13; 16:28).
Covering a transgression is how you show love and win friends. It is forgiving and forgetting personal wrongs others do to you. A certainty of human relations is that others will regularly irritate and offend you. But what you do with these personal transgressions is the key. By ignoring the provocations and slights of others, you esteem them more important than yourself - which is true love and friendliness (Phil 2:3; I Cor 13:4-7).
Wise men glory in the opportunity to pass over the personal transgressions of others; their discreet wisdom defers their anger (19:11). See the comments on 19:11. Nothing ruffles them, especially the minor irritations that commonly occur among men. They know they have been forgiven much, so it is easy for them to forgive others. They know they have beams in their own eyes, so they do not worry about the specks in others' eyes.
Covering a transgression is how you show love and win friends. It silences every backbiting tongue and drives away every talebearer and whisperer (11:13; 16:28; 18:8; 20:19; 25:23; 26:20-22; Ps 101:5). It refuses to repeat rumors or facts that degrade a person's reputation. True love thinks no evil of others and does not rejoice when it hears of failures or sins in others' lives (I Cor 13:4-7). Covering a transgression is burying news that reflects poorly on another's character. Love protects the reputations of others.
Covering transgressions is not compromising with sin. If a man sins against the LORD, it must be dealt with differently than offences between men (I Sam 2:25; I Cor 5:1-5; 6:7). God's rules for handling these greater matters are dealt with throughout the Scriptures. We never cover or overlook sin against God in order to win or keep friends. The topic at hand is personal offences we may cover (19:11; Matt 5:38-48; 18:15-22), or the failures and sins of others that are not our business or responsibility. If a man has repented of a sin, no matter how heinous, there is no love or profit in repeating it to others.
Arrogant and rebellious men will not learn the wisdom of covering personal offences, and ignorant and foolish men cannot learn it. Both assume they must protect themselves by bringing others' faults to their attention. They believe they must avenge any slight they feel from others. They cannot let offences pass. They must remind others of their faults. They burn inside, sometimes for years, for slight offences. They must get revenge.
In order to justify themselves and demote others, they repeat any failure they hear about others. They have a burning heart that loves to get scuttlebutt about others and spread it widely. They receive perverse pleasure by being able to insinuate and whisper about the sins of others. These wicked beasts do not know love and thus seldom have any friends.
Love and friendship begin in the heart. When others offend you, ignore it! Even in your heart! When others slight you, ignore it! Even in your heart! When others provoke you, think kind and merciful thoughts about them! Do not think of reprisal! Forget the matter! Do not plan an opportunity to bring it up. When others fail or sin in their lives, do not gloat or think about it! Be known only for repeating blessings and successes of others.
Love and friendship are best practiced at home. If you can be charitable, gracious, and merciful with siblings or a spouse, you can be so to any man! Children must be taught to overlook sibling offences rather than tattle or needle about them; they must be taught to never repeat sibling failures to others. They must learn to cover offences and seek love.
This proverb can enhance your marriage. Because marriage is a familiar and intimate relationship with another, you will know more of their faults and failures than any other person. Can you cover, forgive, and overlook without saying anything? Or do you think that mentioning the matter ... again ... and again ... is helping you or them? You know nothing about love and will destroy your marriage by building walls between friends.
Reader, ignore and overlook personal offences against you by others. Do not repeat rumors, scuttlebutt, or facts about others that put them in a bad light. Both of these are sins against Christian charity and love that destroy friendliness and friends. Let every man show the same forgiveness to others that God has shown to him (Eph 4:31-32).
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