God sheds His love abroad in the heart of each individual who gets born again and becomes His child. Our response to His great love is to renew our minds to His Word and manifest His love in the world. In studying I Corinthians 13:4-6, we have looked at what characterizes God’s love. We’ve learned that the love of God suffers long and is kind. It absolutely does not envy, vaunt itself, get puffed up, behave itself unseemly, act selfishly, get provoked, reckon evil done to it, or rejoice in injustice. Rather, it rejoices when truth prevails. I Corinthians 13:7 tells us what else we are able to do as we walk in God’s love.
I Corinthians 13:7:
[Charity—the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation] Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
After stating in verses 4 through 6 that the love of God does not do eight negative things, God’s Word tells us in verse 7 that when we walk in God’s love we can do four positives: bear, believe, hope, and endure all things. Let’s learn about these four characteristics and see how Jesus Christ lived them so that we are inspired to bear, believe, hope, and endure all things according to God’s Word.
First let’s note how all four statements in I Corinthians 13:7 end with “all things” in the King James Version. In the Greek text, “all things” is translated from only one word, which is repeated at the beginning of each statement: it reads, “[Charity, or the love of God] all things beareth, all things believeth, all things hopeth, all things endureth.” The repetition of the same word at the beginning of successive phrases is the figure of speech anaphora. This figure of speech adds emphasis to the statements made by calling special attention to them.
Regarding the word “all,” we learn in the foundational class on The Way of Abundance and Power that the word “all” can be used Biblically to mean “all with distinction” or “all without exception.” In I Corinthians 13:7 the word “all” is referring to “all with distinction.” We are to bear all things the Word of God says we can bear; we believe all things the Word instructs us to believe; we hope for all things that are not presently available but will be available in the future according to God’s Word; we endure all things that the Word says we are to endure.
Now let’s look at the Biblical usage for each of these four positives that love does, paying attention to how we can apply them in the Body of Christ. Doing this profits us now and in the future.
I Corinthians 13:7:
Beareth all things….
Love bears all things according to God’s Word. “Beareth” is the Greek word stegō, which means to cover over, shelter, protect. Stegō comes from a word meaning “roof.” As a roof provides shelter and protection from the elements of nature, so we provide shelter and protection for people with the love of God. People are to be loved. At times it’s the love of God demonstrated toward them that helps people get out of the elements of their old-man nature and into being their best.
Love also believes all things according to God’s Word.
I Corinthians 13:7:
…believeth all things….
“Believeth all things” does not mean that we believe everything we hear. We are to be wise, not foolish; we prove all things according to the standard of God’s Word; and we believe and hold fast to the good.
Proverbs 14:15:
The simple [foolish] believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.
I Thessalonians 5:21:
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
When we manifest God’s love, we can believe all things written in the Word regarding our brothers and sisters in Christ, focusing on the new man—the Christ in them. We see others as the Word says they are, not as the five senses may suggest.
The love of God bears all things and believes all things according to the Word. And even when circumstances are less than ideal or even austere, love also hopes.
I Corinthians 13:7:
…hopeth all things….
“Hopeth” is the Greek word elpizō. It means to expect something. We hope for all things that are not presently available but will be available sometime in the future according to God’s Word.
Romans 8:24 and 25:
For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for [how can one hope for what he already sees]?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Our great hope as Christians is the hope of Christ’s return, which includes the rewards we will receive for doing God’s Word. Staying focused on the Hope frees us to love big. It helps us take the long view because we know that we are gaining rewards to enjoy forevermore when we make the effort to walk in love toward one another….
This is an excerpt from the July/August 2017 issue of The Way Magazine.
Copyright© 2017 by The Way International. All rights reserved.
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