Alba 2-8-2026
LOVE ENDURES ALL THINGS
I Corinthians 13:7
It can be difficult these days to find a love that endures. There’s the story of a husband who placed an ad in the Rocky Mountain News just prior to a Super Bowl game some years ago. It said, “Will trade my non-cooking and non-shopping wife with attitude problems for one Super Bowl ticket. No Indian givers. Call...(he gave his name and phone number).” And it ended with the word “Hurry.”
When interviewed, the husband, although he was known to play practical jokes, claimed he was not kidding. He said the idea occurred to him the day after the AFC championship game when it snowed heavily in Denver. He said, “She refused to go shopping. She said the roads were too slick, so she made me do it. I get tired of that stuff after a while. If I could get a Super Bowl ticket, it would be a one-way trip.”
It doesn't sound like love was enduring in that situation. But it is not always husbands who act like that. Back in the 1970's Pepper Rodgers was the football coach at UCLA. There was a time that he was in the middle of a terrible season, and it got so bad that it upset his home life. Recalling that time he said, “My dog was my only friend. I told my wife that a man needs at least two friends. And she went out and bought me another dog.”
I Corinthians 13:7 has a list of four things that love will do. It says that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things”. That phrase “endures all things” is what we are going to talk about today, and it raises some questions. The first is...
Is There Such a Thing as a Love that Endures?
The word “endure” is a compound word that literally means “to remain under”. In secular Greek it was a military term that was used to describe an army holding its position at all costs. So in this context, it means that we hang in there, even in those difficult circumstances that occur when love faces the challenges of life. Because it endures all things.
But the problem is that we so often see situations where love does not endure. We see marriages that fail. We see love lost between parents and children. Troubles come that seem insurmountable. There is suffering, and trials, and pressures in life. When they come the feeling is – life shouldn't be like this. So people give up on love.
Too many people, sometimes even Christians, feel that God (if there is a God) should be available to ensure that they never face any troubles or problems. Their god is transformed into a sort of celestial grandfather who does what he can to make life comfortable for the self-centered soul. The individual is placed at the center of his or her universe; everything is arranged for their individual pleasure. Such an attitude keeps people from loving as they should. It also keeps them from staying faithful in a love relationship. If that attitude seeps into our lives, even though we are Christians, we need to be reminded of what Peter wrote in I Peter 4:12-13, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.”
The reality is that bad things do happen to good people. Christians suffer—some suffer to the point of death. However, that is not the end of the story. If that was all there was to the story there would be little reason to even consider becoming a Christian. Of course, as someone has said, if Christians were somehow divinely protected from experiencing opposition, injury or pain, everyone would choose to be a Christian.
But troubles come. When we were ministering in North Platte, Nebraska, a couple was attending the church. There was a terrible accident at the swimming pool. Their young son, about six years of age, drowned. It was a horrible time for them. Even after it happened, the mother kept thinking she could hear the boy calling to her. Later there was a discussion about insurance to pay for funeral expenses. The wife found out that the husband had not been paying the life insurance premiums, so there was no insurance. All of this caused dissension between them. And sadly it led to divorce. Whatever led them to each other was not enough to keep them together in this difficult time.
On the other hand, I know of many Christian couples who have gone through loss, through disappointments, through struggles with health or family issues who, because of their love for the Lord and for each other, they weathered the storms that came their way. But if troubles and problems do cause issues, it raises another question.
Is There a Good Example of a Love that Endures?
Where can we find such love? The answer: In the cross of Jesus Christ. Our Lord endured all things, bearing the pain, suffering and shame of the cross. Jesus did the most loving thing anyone could do for another. He died for all of us. And yet multitudes have continued to reject Him every day for nearly 2,000 years. Still, Jesus keeps right on loving those people even after they have turned His love away, because His love endures. And it endured in spite of the fact that when He went to the cross for us, we were not loving Him.
Romans 5:6-8 says, “For when we were still without strength (while we were still weak), in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Loving even when that love was not being returned demonstrates that God has a love that endures all things.
And think about this amazing aspect of Jesus’ love. The night before He went to the cross He washed the disciples' feet. That included Judas’ feet, even though knowing that only a short time later, Judas would leave to go betray Him. God’s love is based on who He is; not who we are. In Malachi 3:6 God says, “For I am the Lord, I do not change.” That tells us a lot about the nature of God’s love toward us. It’s not fragile. It persists even when people are unfaithful to Him.
It was on that very night that Jesus washed those feet that John 13:1 tells us, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”
The phrase “to the end” indicates that Jesus’ love for His disciples continued right up until His last breath on the cross. There is no doubt about Jesus' love. Even in the midst of His own suffering He made sure that the disciples wouldn’t be arrested along with Him. He made arrangements for John to give His mother, Mary, a home and take care of her. He even reached out to a dying thief because He was concerned about his eternal destiny. He loved them “to the end”.
That word “end” can also be translated “uttermost”. The idea is that Jesus’ love for His disciples was complete, full, and perfect. He loved them with the total fullness of His love. The kind of love God has for His people is “an everlasting love”(Jeremiah 31:3). It is not up one day, and down the next. The truth that “God so loved” is made known day after day as we experience His care and provision. His love endures. But that raises yet another question.
Can We Have a Love That Endures?
We use the word love in our society for many different things. We love God. We love our dog. We love a certain kind of food. We love ice cream. The world often confuses lust with love. These things change and fade away. But the love of Jesus, which has endured all things, is a love which continues to endure. That is a love which does not end.
We don’t do that nearly as well as Jesus does, do we? There will be times when our love will not endure, that we will be impatient, irritable, or insist on our own way. And when others resist our efforts to love them, our natural reaction is to just throw in the towel. But if we’re going to love like Jesus loves, we have to learn to move beyond those natural tendencies and to persist in our love even when we really don’t feel like doing that.
God calls us to care for and love one another, not because of our feelings for them, but in spite of them. There is something more to relationships than just getting one's personal needs met and feeling happy. Philippians 2:3-4 guides us in this saying, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”
We need to ask God to help us to persist with enduring love, even for those who have resisted our attempts to love them. Then we can leave the results to Him. Love that endures all things will bring blessings to families and individuals. Someone pointed out that if you want to have a better marriage, then keep on serving your spouse and being loving even when he or she does not appreciate or acknowledge it. If you want to raise children who will grow up to love and serve Jesus, then just keep on serving and loving them, even if they say they hate you as children sometimes do.
If you want to have good relationships with co-workers, then just keep on serving them even if they reject those efforts. And if you want to be a part of a church where people have genuine love for each other, then just keep on serving others and showing love regardless of how they respond.
Can you imagine how different our families, and our workplaces, our churches and our communities would be if we followed the example of Jesus? Can you imagine how our world could be transformed if everyone persisted in their love no matter how others responded?
It is possible. The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonica and complemented them on both the way they showed love for each other, and for their endurance in spite of problems that they were experiencing.
In II Thessalonians 1:3-4 Paul writes, “We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure.”
They were practicing a love that endures all things. The Lord gives His promise that when we do the same, He will see us through. Paul wrote to the faithful Christians in Philippians 1:6 that he was “confident of this very thing, that He (God) who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
As the Psalm we read together earlier tells us, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1).
We need to thank the Lord for loving us even when we haven’t loved Him. And thank Him for demonstrating His love for us through the life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. He gave us a love that endures.
CLOSE:
I will tell you a story that I am not sure is true, but I'll tell it anyway. For more than 40 years, each week a shy Welshman went to his neighbor lady's door and slipped a love note underneath. Because of an argument years before, she refused to speak to the man.
Finally, after writing 2,184 love letters with no response of any kind, the 74-year-old man went to the door, knocked, and asked the 74-year-old woman to marry him. Much to his surprise, she said yes, and they tied the knot.
Sounds crazy right? But this is much the same way the love of God works. He persistently shows His love for us--even in the face of rejection. And when we accept His love it changes everything.
