Love Endureth All Things

Title: Love Endureth All Things                    Text: I Corinthians 13:7

Introduction: Read I Corinthians 13:1-8a –

I. The meaning of love that “Endureth all things”:

Noah Webster – Endure: To last, to continue in the same state without perishing; to remain; to abide;

To bear with patience, to bear without opposition or sinking under pressure (N.W. 1828).

Hodge: “The word (hupomenein) is properly a military word, and means to sustain the assault of an enemy. Hence it is used in the New Testament to express the idea of sustaining the assaults of suffering or persecution, in the sense of bearing up under them, and enduring them patiently. . . This clause, therefore, differs from that at the beginning of the verse; as that had reference to annoyances and troubles, this to suffering and persecutions” (pg. 271).

Morris: This verb “denotes not a patient, resigned acquiescence, but an active positive fortitude. It is the endurance of the soldier who in the thick of the battle is undismayed, but continues to lay about him lustily. Love is not overwhelmed, but manfully plays its part whatever the difficulties” (pg. 186).

Barclay: “Love bears everything with triumphant fortitude.” He sights the example of George Matheson, “who lost his sight and who was disappointed in love [who] wrote in one of his prayers that he might accept God’s will, ‘Not with dumb resignation but with holy joy; not only with the absence of murmur but with a song of praise.’ Love can bear things, not merely with passive resignation, but with triumphant fortitude, because it knows that ‘a [loving] father’s hand will never cause his child a needless tear.’ ”(pg. 124).

John Wesley: “Meantime [love] endureth all things-Whatever the injustice, the malice, the cruelty of men can inflict. He can not only do, but likewise suffer, all things, through Christ who strengtheneth him” (Power Bible).

II. Bible examples of Love that “Endureth all things”:

A. Job – Chapter 13:15 “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.”

B. Jacob “Genesis 29:20 “And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.”

C. Paul: 2 Timothy 2:8-10

D. Jesus Christ: Hebrews 12:2 – Endured the Cross

E. God: Ps 107:1 “O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

III. Developing a life of Love that “Endureth all things”:

A. Develop a tender conscience toward God: 1Peter 2:19 – “For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.”

B. Trust in God’s mercy: James 5:11- “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

C. Accept chastening as an act of God’s love for you: Hebrews 12:6-7

D. Be watchful: 2Timothy 4:5 – “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”

E. Develop a soldiers attitude in the Christian life: 2 Timothy 2:3 – “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

Conclusion: Are you enduring all things right now in love. You can by the grace of God!