Above everything may be expressed as “the most important thing of all” or “that which is more important than anything else.”
Peter never tires of exhorting the Christians to love one another (compare 3.8; 1.22). Here he adds another element, that is, that loving one another is the most important part of the Christian way of life. For earnestly, see 1.22. Here, as there, the Greek word can also mean “intense” (Barclay), “constant” (New American Bible; compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “Do not stop loving one another”).
Love one another earnestly may often be expressed as “love one another with all your hearts” or “be completely sincere in your love of one another.” In some instances earnestly must be interpreted merely as an intensive, for example, “love one another very much indeed.”
The purpose of this constant love is stated in terms of a quotation from Proverbs 10.12. The quotation itself is closer to the Hebrew text rather than to the Greek; and since Old Testament quotations in this letter are usually from the Septuagint, it is possible that this particular quotation may have come to Peter as a detached maxim which had become popular in the early church. The Hebrew verb for “covers” is sometimes used in the Old Testament to mean “atone for” (Exo 29.36), “forgive” (Psa 32.1), “appease” (Prov 16.14).
The proverbial saying in its Petrine context is capable of various interpretations. (1) God forgives the sins of those who love one another; (2) those who love one another are always ready to forgive the sins of others; and (3) when people love one another, this relationship prevents them from doing wrong against one another. It is probably because of the fact that this is an Old Testament quotation that most translations do not attempt any restructuring here; one translation that does, leans toward the second of these three alternatives (compare Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “love forgives many sins”).
It is frequently impossible to preserve the inherent ambiguity in the clause because love covers over many sins. One of the difficulties is that a more or less literal translation can be entirely misleading. For example, a literal rendering can simply mean “if a person loves, then that will cover up many of the sins he commits” (with the implication that other people will then not discover all the bad things that he has done). An additional complication in the rendering of the statement love covers over many sins is that in a number of languages there is no substantive for love, that is to say, one must use a verb, and therefore the specific relationship between the participants and the event of love, as well as the events of covering over and sinning, must be made explicit. If one adopts the first interpretation suggested in the previous paragraph, namely, God forgives the sins of those who love one another, one may translate love covers over many sins by rendering “if you love one another, God will forgive your many sins.” The second suggested interpretation (which in many respect seems preferable) may give rise to the following rendering: “if you love one another, you will always be ready to forgive other people’s sins” or possibly “… forgive the bad things which they do to you.”
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The First Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .