Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Today's Verse of the Day is from a famous chapter in the Bible, one of the most famous chapters in the Bible. Paul, here, has been describing love for 12 verses now. What you reach here in the text is sort of the summit of what he's been saying. He says: "Love—here's the deal. It never gives up. Never loses faith. Is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance."
What Love Does
The ESV version compresses it even more and comes across even more powerful, I think, when it says: "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
Now you can hear it. This is not describing how love feels. This is all describing what love does. Love bears. That means it carries weight. It absorbs pain. It does not collapse under pressure. Love also believes—it believes the best about others. It doesn't assume the worst about people. Love hopes. That is, even when the evidence is thin, love hopes. Love imagines rightly a future where God is, where God has a plan, and where God is working.
Bears, believes, hopes, and love endures. That is, real love is going to outlast difficulty. It's going to outlast disappointment. It's even going to outlast betrayal.
Love Covers All Injuries
Listen to this description by Charles Spurgeon. He said: "Love covers all injuries. That is, when you've been offended by someone, when you've been hurt by someone, love covers all injuries by being silent about them and acting as if they had never been."
That is a striking thing to say, and I think it captures what Paul is saying here. That is, love does not look to take offense. Love does not broadcast every grievance. It doesn't weaponize every hurt. It carries it. It even covers it. It even protects the dignity of the other person, even at times the offender.
The Love Jesus Demonstrated
This is the kind of love that Jesus clearly demonstrated. He bore our sin. He endured suffering on the cross on our behalf. He calls us to show this love to one another. We're told elsewhere to be imitators of God as dearly loved children. That is not just some sentimental feeling. It is a costly commitment that we make to those we love.
A Marriage Example
Think of a marriage where two people, a husband and wife, are called to love one another. They're called to exercise 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Imagine that one of them—the husband or wife—develops a chronic illness that's terminal. That does not mean that the healthy spouse gets to walk away from them. If they love, they would never.
What does the other spouse do? They bear with it. They bear with the medical appointments. They bear with the changed plans. They bear with the suffering. They bear with the disappearing dreams. And they do all of that without keeping any kind of score. That is love bearing all things. That is love hoping all things, believing all things, and enduring all things. That is what Paul is talking about.
Who Do You Need to Love This Way?
Who in your life today do you need to love this way? The kind of love that doesn't give up, that doesn't assume the worst, that doesn't lose hope, the kind of love that refuses to quit and endures? That's not natural love. That is supernatural. It is exactly what the Holy Spirit produces in those who belong to Christ.
