# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1924_S32
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

32 Proceedings of the twenty-ninth convention

fast together in one mind and in one judgment," 1 Cor. 1:10. Our Confessions also bring this out. Triglotta, 186: "And the word in 1 Pet. 4: 'Love covereth the multitude of sins,' etc., is taken from the Proverbs of Solomon, where he says: 'Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins.' Here the text states clearly enough by itself that it speaks of love toward the neighbor and not of love toward God. And it means just the same as the next saying of Paul to the Colossians, namely that we should be diligent to live brotherly and kindly, so that one may overlook much in the other, that ill-will and discord may be avoided; as if he were to say: Discord grows out of hatred; as we see that great fire often arises from small sparks. They were not such great matters over which Caesar and Pompey first became disunited, and if one had yielded to the other, the great war that followed, so much bloodshed, so much great misfortune and ruin would not have come of it. But since each one wanted to go through with his head, the great, unspeakable damage, the ruin of the whole Roman government, resulted at that time. — And many heresies have arisen from preachers becoming embittered against one another. So Peter's saying is to be understood thus: 'Love covereth the multitude of sins,' that is, love covers the neighbor's sin. That is, even if ill-feeling arises among Christians, love nevertheless bears all things, overlooks gladly, yields to the neighbor, bears and endures his failings brotherly and does not seek everything in the strictest way. So Peter by no means means that love should earn before God the forgiveness of sins, that love should reconcile us to God without the Mediator Christ, that we should be acceptable to God through love without the Mediator Christ, but Peter means this, that he in whom Christian love is, is not obstinate, not hard and unfriendly, but readily overlooks the neighbor's failings and faults, forgives the neighbor brotherly, is quiet, knows himself and yields for peace's sake, as the saying also teaches: Amici vitia noris, non oderis [know your friend's faults, do not hate him for them], that is, I should learn my friend's ways but not hate him (if it is not all just so) on that account. And the Apostles do not exhort to such love without cause, which the philosophers have called epieikeia [equity]. For if people are to be and remain together in unity, whether in the Church or in secular government, they must not weigh all failings against one another on the gold scales; they must let one another pass a good deal with the water, and always overlook, as much as ever possible, and have patience with one another in a brotherly way."

But where do such people come from who are willing to do this? How can people be brought to submit to the Lord in all matters of faith and life, in credendis et agendis [in things to be believed and done]? Such people are solely a product of the Holy Spirit. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost," 1 Cor. 12:3. No scheming of plans, no compromise, no force, no fire, sword, imprisonment, no seductive ambiguity of speech, no toleration of false teachers, no so-called love that gives up the truth of the holy and alone-saving Word of God to the folly, weakness and wickedness of men, can produce such people, but solely the Holy Spirit and no one else. If everyone who knows the name of Christ would learn this one truth, a new epoch would dawn for the Church. In the 12th chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, where