I think bearing and concealing also has something to do with the way you see yourself: when you choose to accept yourself the way you are, you make a decision to accept love so that you hardly notice your own imperfections, let alone be provoked by them.
When the Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8, Proverbs 10:12), it can be taken in the context of the way God sees us, the way we see ourselves and the way we see other people.
Some Christians believe that in order to please God, you have to make yourself fully, consciously aware of all your weaknesses, but that is not what God’s love does. Bearing or concealing together with longsuffering enables a person to forebear themselves or another person – just as they are without any exception and without any prerequisites. Forbearance is all about acceptance.
Love enables a person to accept themselves and other people, just as they are, without first having to insist on some sort of change being made. Christians mistakenly believe that they have to constantly examine themselves for hidden sins or that they have to remind themselves of past mistakes. But the Bible says that we should forget the former things and look towards the future.
13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14
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