Faithbase

Hey folks, welcome to part two of 1 Corinthians 13 7. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Something really important to understanding the whole picture here is understanding each word and so I kind of want to walk through each one. Love bears all things. This is a specific word meant for sheltering or covering. If you could imagine like a shelter house, right, that's got this roof and these walls on it that really cover from everything that's happening outside. Love always protects. That's the way the NIV puts it. This is a beautiful picture of watching over someone, right, or being watched over yourself. Love believes all things. Well, we believe the best in others. That's what love does. Love believes that the good is always at hand. Now when we just take believes all things, we could say, well, you know, someone could get really taken advantage of here. Well, but if love is also bearing all things and covering, then we're also experiencing what's happening out in the world. We're not isolating. We're not also giving up wisdom and discernment. That's not what this says. It says that we also believe the best. Love believes. Love also hopes. Love is hopeful. It is optimistic. It believes that there is good on the other side, that God is in the midst, that there is goodness happening and that God is doing what he ought to be doing. There's always hope. And this is, this is the NIV right there. The love always hopes. Well, again, taken by itself, we could easily get cynical and say, well, what about when all seems lost? Well, if love also endures all things, this word is Greek word endures. It's actually a combination of abide and under. If you imagine like we're abiding under. Now we're underneath. Not only are we getting through trials and pain and suffering, but we are also being sheltered from it. And in the midst of it, right in the middle, it's belief and hope. I love that this is the way that it looks sometimes really only belief and hope can exist with the sheltering of love from the pain and the trials. And it's not ignorance of what's happening. This is actually experiencing it and protecting others, but also enduring and abiding in the midst of it. Never letting go of our position, never giving up hope and belief. This is a true picture of love friends. And it can be so easy to be cynical. It can be so easy to, to get frustrated, to give up, but that's not what love does. And I know sometimes this might even be hard to say, like, is this possible? Is love like this even doable? We'll talk about that tomorrow, but this is what perfect love looks like.