Love bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
“bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:7)
Yesterday, Friday, while I was driving my beloved youngest daughter, Karis, home from her university dorm, we had various conversations in the car. For almost 40 minutes, Karis shared the things she wanted to tell me, and among them, she shared something her church's college pastor had said. The essence of the pastor's message, as I understood it, was that the relationship of love with the Lord is what truly matters. The background to this message was about how, when struggling with not being able to read the entire Bible, rather than focusing on that, it is more important to focus on our relationship with the Lord, which is a relationship of love. I told my beloved daughter that I agreed with the pastor's teaching. There can certainly be struggles and concerns about things like whether we read the Bible or not, whether we evangelize or not, and so on, regarding what we should and should not do. However, the important thing is that the more intimate and solid our relationship of love with the Lord becomes, the more we will live in obedience to His Word, empowered by His love.
Personally, when I think of the Lord's love and pray with a longing heart for His love, there is a verse from the Bible that I hold onto. That verse is Ephesians 3:17-18. In the Korean Modern Bible, it says: “… and I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” I often pray to God the Father, like the Apostle Paul, according to this verse. The reason is that I want to more deeply understand the width, length, height, and depth of Christ’s love. Moreover, I long to be submerged in the ocean of His love. I earnestly desire to be used as a tool (a channel) of His love to love others. I experienced the answer to this prayer especially through the death of my first child, Charis(Joo-young). When we sprinkled Charis’ ashes into the water and were returning, my wife, who had been sitting at the front of the small boat while I was steering at the back, looked at me and said “Titanic.” After seeing the tears flowing down her face, I unknowingly began to praise the hymn “My Savior’s Love” while looking at the sky. The Holy Spirit within me led me to praise the greatness and wonder of my Savior's love. Later, I realized that it was the fulfillment of Psalms 63:3, which led me to make the decision to let Charis pass away quickly. Through this great crisis in our newlywed life, the Lord allowed me to understand a little more of the width, length, height, and depth of His love. And the Lord caused the root of His love to be planted in our hearts as a couple.
Today's passage, 1 Corinthians 13:7, is a verse from the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, and it is one of the well-known verses from the "love chapter." It says, "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." Based on this verse, I would like to reflect on four lessons about love.
First, love bears all things.
Today's passage from 1 Corinthians 13:7 says, "Love bears all things ...." I still vividly remember the time when my wife and I went to visit my parents shortly after we got married. I will never forget the one thing my mother-in-law said to my wife: "Bear with it and bear with it again." Of course, as a mother-in-law, she meant that in the context of a married couple, advising my wife to endure and be patient. However, as I heard my mother-in-law’s words, I understood them as advice from a senior pastor's wife (my mother) to a junior pastor's wife (my wife).
Love bears all things (v. 7). Love bears and endures again and again. Love is patient (James 5:8). Love is long-suffering (1 Corinthians 13:4). Just as Jesus Christ demonstrated great patience and endurance toward us (1 Timothy 1:16), we, too, show patience and endurance toward one another with the love of Christ. Love bears trials and persecutions (1 Corinthians 4:12). Love waits (1 Peter 3:20). Love waits patiently before God (Psalms 37:7). Love serves patiently (Acts 20:19). Love bears all things for the glory of God (Isaiah 48:9).
Second, love believes all things.
Today's passage is 1 Corinthians 13:7: "Love... believes all things ...." Trust is very important in human relationships, yet today, trust in many human relationships is breaking down. For example, in marriage, husbands and wives should trust each other, but we often hear of relationships where that trust begins to crack and eventually shatters. If a couple cannot trust each other, how can they trust others? This is the work of Satan. Satan is breaking down trust in all human relationships. But a more frightening work of Satan is that he causes us to rely on our own understanding (wisdom), which leads us to not trust the Lord (see Proverbs 3:5). Satan makes us question the Lord (and His word), which leads to doubt, and eventually to unbelief. Therefore, Satan tries to turn the love relationship between the Lord and us into one of complaints, resentment, and even hatred. However, the Holy Spirit strengthens and solidifies our love relationship with the Lord, making us trust in the Lord (and His word) fully. The Holy Spirit makes our faith more steadfast (Colossians 2:7).
Love believes all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). Love believes in God (Acts 27:25). Love believes in the Lord (18:8). Love believes that the Lord is the Christ who will come into the world and is the Son of God (John 11:27). Love believes that Jesus died and rose again (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Love believes that those who have died in faith in Jesus will be brought with Him (v. 14). Love believes that salvation comes through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 15:11). Love believes in every word of God recorded in the Bible (24:14). Love believes that what God has spoken to me will certainly come to pass (27:25). Love believes that God has rescued us from the great danger of death, and He will continue to rescue us, and will rescue us again (2 Corinthians 1:10).
Third, love hopes all things.
Look at 1 Corinthians 13:7: “Love ... hopes all things ....” There are times when we feel there is nothing more to hope for. There are times when the situation is so hopeless that we cannot hold on to hope anymore. For example, when my first baby was in the intensive care unit, one day as I was washing my hands and putting on the gown, the attending physician came to me and said that they had done everything they could. He told me that I needed to decide whether to let the baby die slowly or let the baby die quickly. At that moment, I asked the doctor to let the baby die slowly. The reason was that, up until that point, I had seen how the Lord had spared my baby and extended her life even through major surgeries. Therefore, although the situation was hopeless from a medical perspective, I placed my hope in the Lord. With the hope the Holy Spirit had placed in my heart, I asked the doctor to let the baby die slowly. In our lives on earth, there are times when we are faced with situations where, from a human perspective, we cannot have any more hope. That is why, personally, I have come to love the lyrics of the third verse of the hymn "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less": “His oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the whelming flood; When all around my soul gives way He then is all my hope and stay.” Although we may not fully understand why the Lord allows everything we trust in this world to be cut off, piece by piece, or all at once, I believe that the Lord’s purpose is to lead us to trust only in Him, place all our hope in Him, and rely solely on Him. I believe that the more despairing the situation is from a human perspective, the more the Lord desires to draw us to Himself, to hope in Him, and to long for Him, fulfilling His good, perfect, and pleasing will.
Love bears all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). Love hopes for all things. Love hopes even when, from a human perspective, there seems to be no hope. A great biblical example of this is Abraham. In Romans 4:18, the Bible says that Abraham "hoped against hope" — that is, he hoped even when it seemed impossible. Abraham was in a situation where there was no reason to hope. He was almost a hundred years old, and his body was as good as dead, and his wife Sarah was also old and beyond childbearing age (v. 19). He was in an impossible situation where having a son was not feasible (v. 18). Yet, despite these circumstances, Abraham did not doubt God with unbelief. He did not weaken in faith but stood firm in faith, convinced that God could fulfill His promise (vv. 19-21). Just like Abraham, we too must hope and believe even when it seems impossible (v. 18). Love hopes for all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). Love puts its hope in God (Psalms 42:5, 11; 43:5). Love hopes for the salvation of the Lord (119:166). Love does not depart from the hope of the gospel (Colossians 1:23). Love eagerly awaits the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). When our Savior, Jesus Christ, returns to this world, we will see the Lord face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12).
Four and last, love endures all things.
Today's scripture, 1 Corinthians 13:7, says, "Love ... bears all things." We often face situations that are unexpectedly difficult to endure, and in these moments, we ask ourselves the question "Why?" This can lead us into complaints, dissatisfaction, and a sense of victimization, causing our emotions to be filled with discouragement, despair, frustration, and hopelessness. We also ask "How?" and, unable to understand certain things in our own reasoning, we struggle to find solutions to our problems and may end up wasting God's time. We may ask "What?" countless times, trying to discern God's will, but our thoughts and God's thoughts are as far apart as the heavens and the earth (Isaiah 55:9), and there are far more times when we do not know His will than when we do. Therefore, we must ask the question, "Who is God?" Just as Job, knowing and believing in who God is, accepted his painful reality, acknowledging God's sovereignty in faith, and did not sin with his lips but instead worshiped God, we too must accept our reality by acknowledging God's Lordship. When we do so, our emotions will no longer be filled with discouragement, frustration, and despair. Instead, we will experience true and steadfast peace, and with love for God and our neighbors, we will be able to endure all things.
Love bears all things (v. 7). Love endures trials (James 1:12). Love endures God's discipline (Hebrews 12:7). Love endures suffering (2 Corinthians 1:6; 2 Timothy 4:5). Love endures even severe suffering, beyond our strength (2 Corinthians 1:8). Love endures when we are enslaved, exploited, used, treated with arrogance, or slapped on the cheek (2 Corinthians 11:20). Love endures when we deeply treasure God's Word in our hearts, and when pain or persecution comes because of that Word (see Matthew 13:21). Love, through God's glorious power, strengthens us to endure all things with joy (Colossians 1:11). Love endures all hardships to help those chosen by God gain salvation in Christ Jesus, along with eternal glory (2 Timothy 2:10).
I would like to conclude with a reflection on the Word. Love bears all things. Love believes all things. Love hopes all things. Love endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). Love never fails (v. 8). Love is eternal. God's love is eternal (Psalms 136). The eternal God loves us with an eternal love (Jeremiah 31:3).
"The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell; The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win; His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from His sin. Oh love of God, how rich and pure! How measure-less and strong! It shall forever more endure, The saints' and angels' song" (Hymn "The Love of God is Greater Far," verse 1 and chorus),
James Kim
[March 5, 2022, wishing that you may be rooted and grounded in love, together with all the saints, grasping the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ’s love, and that God’s abundant grace may overflow to you (Ephesians 3:17-18, Korean Modern Bible)]