Proverb 10:12

“Hatred stirs up strife,
But love covers all sins.”

I can’t help but see this verse as an inverted version of the former. 

Where the mouth of the righteous exudes life from waters of the proverbial well in verse 11, the hateful person stirs up strife therein. The contrasting visual is stunning. The righteous person refreshes with their life-giving waters. The hateful person stirs up strife with a momentum that picks up everything in its path to ride the cyclical whirlpool. Round and round and round he goes without having to exert any effort of his own. Like it or not, he is along for a ride, floating to angry heights on the surface, drowning in disagreeable lows and stuck on the sickening loops of conflict, grasping at anyone and anything in his path to either save him or bring them down with him.  

And in the way that violence covered the mouth of the wicked in verse 11, love covers all sin here. There is enough of the life-giving waters in the well to go around. For all of us who have ridden that whirlpool, we can still confess. We can still sip of the water. We can still choose righteousness, and so become righteous.

And the love that encompasses us in that moment will be enough to cover all of our past sins. Those we enjoyed and those that sickened us when we got caught up in the whirlpool. And it will be enough for us to extend to others: forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us—even those who caused us conflict and strife. Yes, even one’s self.

So stirring up strife is an indicator of hatred. When we see this at play, we can call out that wickedness and turn our sights back to the well. That we may draw out waters of life through our righteousness—not acts of righteousness—but by turning towards righteousness that we may become so and settle the waters which are being stirred.