Love...

Alright, time to finish up the analysis of 1 Corinthians 13. This is part of a series, part 1 can be found here.

“Love bears all things…” Love will endure things patiently. Alternately, love “covers all things.” Love will cover up the flaws of another in order to “know no evil.” This doesn't mean that love ignores evil, though. It means that love will put it in the past. Love bearing all things is also a restatement of the fact that love is patient. The fact that this is restated is a huge commentary on that particular character of love. It will suffer quietly and with dignity for the good of the beloved. Once again, look to the Passion of Jesus. That was the highest form of love imaginable to humans, that the God of the Universe, who knows no wrong, would come to earth, humble himself into taking the form of a human, and willingly suffer and die in one of the most humiliating and painful ways imaginable. This is love bearing all things.

“…believes all things…” Love has a sense of trust naturally instilled. It also has a sense of faith. Later on, in the book of Hebrews, faith is defined as “the substance of things hoped for.” It is “evidence of things unseen,” proof to the faithful person of whatever it is he has faith in (hint: the resurrection). Basically, though, this ties into the earlier line about love knowing no evil. Love will trust the best in someone's reputation.

“…hopes all things…” first things first, hope is NOT a desire for something that is u
nattainable. For example, it doesn't mean that love hopes the Cubs will win the next World Series (after 110 years, you'd think they'd have done it by now…) Instead, love’s hope is in everything is forever, for things that are actually important, such as the Resurrection. It won't stop hoping in a hopeless situation.

“…endures all things.” Love will always persevere. Again, this theme of perseverance in love. This perseverance comes up so frequently that it must have some importance. Love will bear scorn and handle being wronged. I think this has been beaten into the ground, so we'll move on.

“Love never fails.” Would you look at that, perseverance comes up again. It seems very important to note that this agape of God is most described as perseverant and enduring. God’s love is eternal. It will never run out. This love is forever. It will never fail. No matter how mad you get at God, he will love you. There is literally nothing you can do to get God to stop loving you.

There we go. We've officially gone through the typical wedding reading. So why do we bother with this? Well, first off, it helps with our definition of love, which we'll work out tomorrow. More importantly, at the end of the Gospel, Jesus gives a very important command. We are told to love one another as he loved us. This passage is an introduction to that love. 

Next time, we'll take everything we've worked out to try to bring out a definition.