Mensa Otabil - Love Endures
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This week we’ve been looking at love and the various dimensions of love from First Corinthians chapter 13, and so we go to verse 7. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love is a very powerful virtue, and it treats others with grace and generosity. That’s the attribute of love. When you love somebody, you are gracious to them and generous towards them. It doesn’t mean that you don’t acknowledge their wrongs, or you don’t see their faults, or you don’t see their mistakes. God knows all about us; He knows our sins, He knows our shortcomings, and He actually knows our thoughts before we act on them. Yet, He is able to relate to us, and that’s the attribute of God. Love bears all things.
So, what does it mean when the passage says love bears all things? It means love covers; love is a covering. We see that exactly through the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. When He was being nailed to the cross, He saw what the people were doing; He saw they were nailing His hands, He saw they wanted to kill Him. He wasn’t ignorant of all of these fights, but He could still pray and cover them, saying, «Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.» That’s the nature of love; it acts with grace and acts with generosity.
It’s very difficult for us as human beings to treat people generously and graciously, especially when they are hurting us and causing us a lot of harm. While it’s also important for us to correct people’s attitudes, mention the wrongs they are doing, and place things where they are, we must not forget that love ultimately forgives, and that’s what we are aiming at. We acknowledge the wrong, but we also forgive.
Love bears all things and hopes all things. It means it believes for the best; it looks for the best. It doesn’t mean that you are ignorant and let people lie to you while still believing it. That’s not what it’s talking about. There are times when you can be talking to somebody, and you know they are lying to you, but you really wish the best for the person. You wish that they would grow out of their state of lying and their bad behavior, and do well for themselves.
So, whilst you acknowledge the limitations of people, you still believe that there is something good in them, that something good can come out of them, that something great can come out of them. Of course, there are people who believe everything others tell them and get into all kinds of trouble, and that’s not what the passage is talking about here. It means that we acknowledge the limitations of human behavior. We know their faults, but we still believe the best for them.
And that’s how God treats us, isn’t it? He knows that sometimes when you’re confessing your sins to God, you’re not doing it honestly. But God still believes the best for you and wishes the best for you. Love hopes all things; love looks forward to good things in life. There will be setbacks; there will be bad treatment, and people are going to do things to you that will deeply hurt you. But you always have to be forward-looking. If you’re going to walk in love, you’re going to hope, you’re going to believe, you’re going to cover, and you’re going to expect that things are going to work out well.
Even the person who is nailing your hand now may one day tend to make you his Lord. That’s what happened in the life of Jesus Christ; the people who crucified Him later proclaimed Him as Lord. The Roman Empire became a Christian community after they had sought the life of Jesus Christ. That is what the love of God does; it takes our worst enemies and makes them the best for God.
Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, You desire the best for me. Help me to seek the best in others. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.