When I was a kid, a lot of things came very easily to me. I was naturally coordinated, and so sports were always fun and easy for me. School also came easily to me, and I enjoyed it.
But because many things came easily to me I would often have problems when something didn’t “click” really fast. If I had to work at something, too often I’d just get really frustrated and quit.
This happened when my Mom tried to teach me piano lessons. I did OK at first, but when I needed to do different things with both hands, I quit. It also happened with trumpet. In 5th grade I decided I wanted to play the trumpet – but after about 2 months I quit – it just took too much effort and practice and was just too hard!
When it comes to loving people we all know that sometimes it is very easy – and sometimes it is difficult. As we close out this series on 1 Corinthians 13 called “Nothing Beats Love”, we’re going to take a look at the final descriptions of love that Paul gives in verses 7 and 8.
We’ve already learned that:
• Love is patient, love is kind.
• It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
• It is not rude, it is not self seeking.
• It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
• Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
Today we pick it up at verse 7 in 1 Cor. 13:
“It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
Here Paul tells us, Godly love for other people NEVER GIVES UP. It might get hard – in fact it probably will, but love NEVER GIVES UP. Let’s take a look at these final descriptions of love one at a time.
Love always protects (bears all things).
7Love bears up under anything and everything that comes… (Amplified Bible)
The word “protect” comes from the same word that speaks of putting a roof over something. Love “covers” another person so that they are protected and safe from harm.
Stand up for others.
This is exactly what Jesus does for us.
Rev. 12:10 ¶ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
When Satan comes before God and accuses us of wrongdoing, of unfaithfulness, and deliberate sin, Jesus, our high priest, reminds Satan that those wrongs, those sins, have already been paid for. He reminds Satan that those he is accusing have already been adopted into God’s family – and he covers us.
ILLUS: I recently had this type of love well up in me at the strangest of places: a teacher conference. As I sat listening to a teacher describing one of my children in not-so-positive terms, something welled up within me. I got very protective – and probably even too much so – but I knew that the teacher did not know my child the way I did, and I needed to convince her to suspend judgement on my child and help her to see my child in a different light.
I think that is a bit of what is meant when Paul says that love always protects.
Love always trusts (believes all things).
Amplified Bible
[Love] is ever ready to believe the best of every person.
Assume the best about people.
In the legal system of our country we have a foundational principle that someone is considered innocent until proven guilty. Just because the news puts someone’s face up on the screen and says they were indicted for a crime doesn’t mean they did it!
But what about when someone you are close to appears to have done something wrong, something that might even possibly harm your relationship. What is your first reaction? What is the loving reaction? The loving reaction is to assume the best about them. To assume that you just don’t have all the info. To give them a chance to explain their actions before rushing to a judgment.
When you love someone, you give them the benefit of the doubt – but there is something that has bothered me about this phrase “love always trusts” ever since I started this series.
If we take it at face value, it almost sounds like if you love someone you make yourself a target for manipulation and a target for other people to use you. It could be taken to mean “If you love someone, you’ll act like you trust them, even when a person has abused your trust.”
So before we go any further I want to make sure to clarify this. Sometimes a person is NOT worthy of our trust. They lie. They cheat. They steal. They break promises.
To keep on trusting this person would be foolish. What God calls us to do in these situations is to change the object of our trust. Although a person may not be worthy of our trust, we can keep on trusting that God sees good in them. We can keep on trusting that God can do a good work in them – that he is not finished with them. We can keep on trusting that they are not beyond God’s redemptive powers.
Those of you who have been hurt know that even doing this can be a difficult task – perhaps even impossible with the power of the Holy Spirit. When someone has abused your trust time and again, it can be easy to “write them off” and stop praying for them and stop believing in them. But somehow, with the power of the Holy Spirit in you, you can keep trusting and believing that God is doing good in them.
The moment you stop praying for someone is the moment you’ve stopped believing in them – and it’s the moment you’ve stopped loving them.
Love assumes the best about others.
Love always hopes (hopes all things).
Regard no one as hopeless.
This goes right along with the last point – for when you love someone, you never lose hope in them. You never consider them a hopeless cause – because God is able to work miracles in the lives of even the most stubborn people.
At CTK we say “There is hope for the future and forgiveness for the past.” Helping people experience that forgiveness and hope is our mission.
One of the lies from the pit of hell is that God can’t forgive you because of where you’ve been or what you’ve done. It’s just not true. God looks beyond your condition today to see what could be tomorrow. There are future chapters to be written in the story. God understands what others don’t. You are not defined by what you’ve done. There’s hope for the future. Aren’t you glad?
And if it’s true that you are not defined by what you’ve done – it’s each of our mission to extend that same type of love to those around us.
The tendency in the church is to want to be a showcase for people who have got it all together, not a hospital for those who don’t. But Christ the King is designed to be that hospital. To be a place where broken, messed up people can come and experience the love of God from normal everyday people. To be a place where love always hopes for that preferable future where things get better, not worse.
Love always perseveres (endures all things).
Never give up on anyone.
Godly love endures longer – keeps loving after others would stop.
"The thought is not that of an unreasoning optimism, which fails to take account of reality. It is rather a refusal to take failure as final." – One writer on the internet
Their choices in your relationship may cause a separation – they may in fact cause a total break in the relationship. That break may be necessary to keep yourself from being abused by one who would take advantage of you.
But even in these extreme situations, God calls us to persevere in love for that person. To not give up on them. To continue praying for them. To continue believing that God can work in their lives. To continue praying that the future can be better than the past or the present.
CONCLUSION:
So – having described love in 14 different ways – all of which challenge us and point out our natural deficiencies and our need for the power of the Holy Spirit – Paul closes with these 3 words about love:
Love never fails.
The next time your love for someone is tested, remember this. God’s love for you never fails. He never gives up on you. And his ability to fill you with love for others never fails. Call upon Him. Do not lean on your own natural tendencies, but ask Him to fill you once again with His love.
