The Nature Of Love (Part 4): Love In Its Relation To The Circumstances Of Life

Video Editing

SERMON OUTLINE

• I. Love Bears All Things
• II. Love Believes All Things
• III. Love Hopes All Things
• IV. Love Endures All Things

TRANSCRIPT

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I greet all of you in the most blessed name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Once again, I thank the Lord for the privilege He has granted me to stand before you to share His holy, inspired, and preserved Word. At the same time, I want to thank Reverend Paul for allowing me to take his place this evening to share God's Word with you.

Last time, we considered the nature of love as found in 1 Corinthians 13. And we completed up to verse 6. Tonight, we are going to look at verse 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 13:7. Let me read it to you, “[Charity] beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things”. May the Lord bless us in the reading of His holy and perfect Word.

This is the topic of our message this evening: “The Nature of Love when it Relates to the Circumstances of Life”. We have been studying 1 Corinthians 13, a chapter known as the chapter of love. And we have already noted that the Apostle Paul used 15 verbs to explain what it means to love one another in the church. Remember the context is the local church, so what we read in this chapter is what we need to practice in our own church.

Among the 15 verbs that the Apostle Paul used, we have already seen 11 of them. The remaining four verbs are what we are going to consider together this evening.

I. Love Bears All Things

Please look at verse 7: "[Charity] beareth all things." That is our first point. Love bears all things - what does it mean? The words ‘all things’ has to be understood in a limited sense. Sometimes when we read in the scripture words like ‘all things,’ ‘everything,’ ‘all,’ and so on, we need to understand it in its own context. There are times when the words ‘all things’ will mean all things without exception; at other times, it refers to many things, not everything without exception. So there are times when these words are used in a limited sense.

In this verse, the Apostle Paul uses the words ‘all things’ in a limited sense, not in an absolute sense. What I’m trying to say is that the words ‘all things’ do not mean every single thing without exception. How do we know that? This is indicated in the context. If we look at the previous verses beginning from verse 4, where the Apostle Paul started to explain the nature of love, there are certain things that he prohibits or, rather, love doesn’t do.

For example, let us look at verse 4: "Charity envieth not"— it does not envy, it is not puffed up and it does not behave itself unseemly. Verse 5: It does not seek its own, it is not easily provoked, it does not think evil, it does not rejoice in iniquity. These negatives tell us that the words ‘all things’ cannot mean every single thing. The Apostle Paul himself limited the meaning of the words ‘all things’ to refer to certain things, not all things.

And what are those things that we need to bear? Or what are the things that love bears? Obviously based on the entire scripture, it refers to those things which are acceptable to God. The term ‘all things’ refers to those things which are acceptable to God, approved in the scripture, taught positively in the Holy Scripture. There are many bad things, evil things, that we don’t have to bear. But there are things which are right, legitimate and righteous in the sight of God which we must learn to bear. So that is the meaning of the words ‘all things.’

Now, what does it mean to bear those things? The word ‘bear’ is a common word in the New Testament and its basic meaning is ‘cover’. It comes from the root form which means ‘roof’ - the roof of the house. So its basic meaning is ‘covering.’ To apply that meaning in this context, we may say that love covers the faults, errors and failures of others. Love doesn’t seek to reveal the faults and failures of others. When you love someone, you don’t try to reveal or expose his or her faults or failures.

Let me explain this one. As someone has written, ‘Love bears all things by protecting others from exposure, ridicule or harm. Genuine love does not gossip or listen to gossip. Even when a sin is certain, love tries to correct it with the least possible hurt and harm to the guilty person. Love never protects sin but is anxious to protect the sinner. Love does not justify sin or compromise with falsehood. Love, warns, corrects, exhorts, rebukes and disciplines. But love does not expose or broadcast failures and wrongs—it covers and protects.’

That is the meaning of agape when it relates to the failures and faults of others. If you love someone—maybe someone in your family, in your friendship, maybe in the church—when you find out his or her faults or failures, you don’t try to expose it, you don’t try to broadcast it, and you don’t gossip about it. Instead, you try to cover it in the sense that you try to help him or her secretly so that he or she may repent.

In other passages of the scripture, for example, in 1 Peter 4:8, we are taught: "And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves." The word ‘charity’ is the same word used here—agape—for “charity shall cover the multitude of sins”. Love shall cover a multitude of sins.

James 5:20 teaches us: "Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." Proverbs 10:12: "Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins." Proverbs 17:9: "He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends."

What the Apostle Paul means here is this: If you and I love someone—maybe our spouse, maybe our children, maybe our friends, maybe our fellow believers in the church, our fellow workers, whoever they are—if we really have agape love, a genuine love for them, of course these loved ones will have their own faults and failures. No human being can escape from that. We all sin, we all make errors and we all err. So when that happens, if we love somebody in a genuine sense, we don’t at once try to expose and broadcast their faults. Instead, we will go to the person, tell him his faults secretly and truthfully, and then pray for him or for her, giving him or her the time to repent. That is how we help one another.

But notice, this kind of love is unnatural to the human nature. In our fallen nature, we are prone to gossip about others, to speak evil of others, and there are people who are happy when they find out the faults and errors of others. Exactly the opposite must be learned from this passage. It is human fallen nature to take a perverse pleasure in exposing someone’s faults and failures. But by doing that, no good thing will ever come. So, if you and I have agape love in our hearts, let’s not do that. That is what the fallen nature is happy to do.

II. Love Believes All Things

Secondly, ‘charity believeth all things’. I have already explained what the words ‘all things’ mean. The same meaning applies here—’all things’ refers to those things which are acceptable to God. Right and righteous, positively taught in the Holy Scripture. Love believes those things.

What does it mean to believe? The word ‘believe’ is a very common word in the New Testament, found many, many times. So, when love believes all things, it means love is not suspicious or pessimistic towards others, unless and until otherwise proven. In other words, love has a positive attitude. A positive outlook towards circumstances and towards other people, until proven otherwise.

Even if what it has believed proves to be wrong—even if it has believed in a person or a person who later proves himself to be wrong—it rather chooses to err on the favourable side instead of doubting him from the start. That is what it means. In short, love starts with the simplicity of trust, believing the positive side of the matter.

When we love others in the biblical sense, then we take the positive stance; we take the simplicity of trust in that person from the start. We do not start by doubting; we do not start by being dubious about his or her attitude, motive, or whatever. We must start with positive optimism, until and unless it is proven otherwise.

There’s one good example practiced by a church. The pastor of that church wrote: ‘In our church, we continually try to develop a spirit of mutual trust within the staff and within the congregation as a whole. We believe that each person is dedicated to the Lord and is responsible for serving Him. We believe each person is living in fellowship with the Lord. When someone fails, as we all do, then our desire is to help cover that wrong and help it be made right. Whenever there is doubt, we would rather err on the favourable side.’

What an example. We need to start with trust and belief, and when someone fails, then we need to extend a helping hand so that the person may be restored back to fellowship with the Lord.

A contrary example is found in the gospels, where the Pharisees, the scribes and the lawyers always tried to find fault with our Lord Jesus Christ. On many occasions, these people accused our Lord of breaking God’s law, being blasphemous, and so on. Although our Lord Jesus Christ had been teaching, preaching, healing and performing many, many good things—all that He did were good—yet these people were so pessimistic that they could only see the evil, the bad side of things. And they did it in the wrong way. That is the contrary example we must not follow.

So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Bible, we have bad examples—the Pharisees, the scribes and the lawyers—who took a pessimistic view of persons and things. Instead, we should take the optimistic view, believing and trusting in our spouse, our friends, our children, our fellow workers, our colleagues, our fellow church members, until proven otherwise. In the process, if we find they fail in some areas, let us try to help them.

In Galatians 6:1, the Apostle also teaches us: "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." No one in the church is perfect, including the pastor. We are all human beings and we can err. We fail many, many times. Remember, even the Apostle Peter fell, and he had to be rebuked by our Lord and later by the Apostle Paul.

So although we do not condone sin, although we do not encourage sin, yet we must cover others’ sin to allow them time for repentance. And then, we must start by believing in someone in our acquaintance, with the positive side, and help them grow in the faith and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

III. Love Hopes All Things

Thirdly, charity hopeth all things. In other words, love hopes all things. What does this mean? We have already explained what the words ‘all things’ mean—all things which are acceptable to God, positively taught in the Scriptures. It doesn't include evil things, bad things, or unrighteous things. And love hopes all things.

Let us note there is an ascending order here. Number one: it starts with bearing all things. Meaning love covers the faults of others instead of exposing them so that the person will have an opportunity to amend his way. The second step: this is followed by belief and trust—a determination to trust in and have faith in the good side of people or anything until they prove themselves to be otherwise.

The third step now comes: hope. Even when the first two fail, even when it can no longer believe, love still hopes. Believing that as long as God's grace is operative and as long as there is life, there is hope for repentance and restoration. We try to cover the faults of others so that they can have a time of repentance. We try to trust that they will do well and even if these two fail, we still hope for the best. Because as long as they are alive, as long as God's grace is there working, then we still have hope.

So dear brothers and sisters, let us not lose hope in others easily. Charity hopeth all things. By way of application, as human beings we all err and sin. Even the most holy men of God in the Bible, they do sin. Look at the lives of Abraham, Moses, and David; there were times that they sinned, they erred. Look at the people of God, the Israelites—how many times have they sinned? If God were not slow to anger, if God were very quick in punishing them, there would be no people of Israel today.

God has been very patient. God bears with them, God believes in them and God hopes the best for them. Therefore, He gives them chance after chance to come to repentance.

Think of the way our Lord Jesus Christ dealt with His disciples and others. His disciples failed sometimes. And we understand that the Apostle Peter, after the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, went back to his former career of fishing, and our Lord Jesus Christ had to restore him to the ministry. The Apostle Peter, the greatest apostle among the twelve, fell and backslid, went back to his former life. Our Lord was very patient, very hopeful. He restored him and that is what love does.

What about the Corinthian believers’ behaviour? The Apostle Paul was angry with them because they sinned but the Apostle Paul did not take the Corinthians' failure as final. He still had hope in them, so he encouraged them to repent and come back to the Lord. So love hopes all things.

IV. Love Endures All Things

Finally and fourthly, love endures all things. Charity endures all things. Love endures all things. The word ‘endure’ is a military term used for armies holding a vital position at all costs. Even when the enemy attacks, even when the attack is very serious, the person or army in charge is still holding that vital position at all costs. So, under any difficult circumstances or situations, it continues to endure. That is what it means—love endures all things in that it willingly puts up with awkward circumstances caused by unloving brethren.

Commentated someone: even if those awkward and difficult circumstances in which we find ourselves are caused by people who are unloving toward us, yet if we love them with agape love, we need to endure those circumstances. The great preacher John Wesley explained it this way: ‘Love, in the meantime, endureth all things. Whatever the injustice, the malice, the cruelty of man can inflict, he cannot only do but also suffer all things through Christ who strengthens him.’

Naturally, with our human, fallen nature, we are not able to endure those difficult and awkward circumstances caused by those people unloving to us. Yet, by the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do so. That is what we are taught in the Holy Scriptures.

So dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this evening I want to conclude our study on the nature of love. This is the last part. We have seen that the Apostle Paul took the labour to use 15 different verbs to explain what it means to love one another in the church. The Greek word used is agape; we all know it. This love is not just about feeling; it is about wishing, desiring and doing what is best for others in view of eternity.

So, what is best for others in view of eternity we wish for them and we do our best for them. All the 15 verbs that we have studied are verbs—they are not adjectives expressing a situation; they are verbs, meaning love does something. Love is active. It is action. It does something. It bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all thingsand it endures all things which are acceptable to God.

Once again, in 1 John 4:8 and 16, the Apostle John explains to us that God is love and that’s God's expression of Himself. So, dear friends, let's remember that when we practise agape love in our church, in our family, in our fellowship with others, in our community, wherever it is - when we practise this agape love, we best manifest that we are indeed the children of God. God loves to express Himself by agape, and so should we.

How far have we succeeded in our life of loving others? Loving God comes first of course, and then after we learn to love God, then we can love others. Remember, the word is agape and this is unnatural to human beings. Unless a person is born again in Christ, unless a person is regenerated, he cannot have this kind of love. But as His children, as the children of God bought by the blood of Jesus Christ, born by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are given the ability to live out this agape love.

Why don’t we practise this in our church, in our family, in our friendships? How far have we succeeded in learning to be like the Lord Jesus Christ? The Apostle Paul in Romans 8:29 wrote, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." God has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, to be conformed to the image of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. That means to be more and more like our Lord Jesus Christ in our thoughts, in our speech and in our daily actions. So when we practise agape in our daily lives, we become more and more like our Lord Jesus Christ,. And that is the whole purpose of this chapter.

Charity beareth all things, charity believeth all things, charity hopeth all things, charity endureth all things — all things which are acceptable to God, right and good before God. Let us learn to practise this truth in our lives.

Let us pray. Our dear Father in heaven, we thank You for Thy word written by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthian church. How we need to learn; love in all areas of our life, whether in family, friendship, church, community, or whatever it is. It is Thy will that we understand and practise agape love. We pray for Thy Holy Spirit to help us and we thank Thee for Thy will. May thou be pleased to help each and every one of us to be more and more like our Lord Jesus Christ. For this is our prayer in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Thank you very much. The Lord bless all of you.