Love Actually IsSample

Love is… enduring 

Love is shown when you choose to believe, hope and endure, and to see the best for the other person.

Love is enduring. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. As Paul the Apostle continues to teach us about walking the more excellent way of love, he tells us that the love we should have for people is the kind of love that bears all things. The Amplified Bible breaks it down like this:

1 Corinthians 13:7 (Amplified Bible, Classic Edition)

Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].

That’s the kind of love we need to have towards one another. Imagine yourself as you try to love somebody – they are going to make mistakes, they are going to fall short of your expectations. They are going to sometimes say “I can’t do what you want me to do.” They are going to have their own limitations like all of us do. They are going to have successes and failures along the way. But what does love do? Love endures through all of this. Paul says that love bears all things, love believes all things, love hopes under all circumstances and love endures through all the ups and downs of life.

This is the love we strive for, that even when they fail, we still believe in them, we still hope and desire the best for them. Even if they throw their hands up and say that they can’t do it, you still believe that they can, you still stay with them, you endure with them through all those seasons and times and moments and transitions in life.

Paul says that when we walk in this kind of love, it will never fail. Even the spiritual gifts that God gives to us, they are finite. He says that we can only prophesy in part, only know in part. He says that sometimes even prophecies may fail (not because the gift is wrong, but because the people through whom it comes could have made mistakes.) So there is a possibility of failure even in the expression of spiritual gifts. There is a possibility of shortcomings even in the good deeds that we do, because we may not be able to do all that people need from us. But there is one thing that will not fall short. That is love.

As he concludes this chapter, Apostle Paul reminds us that there will come a time when we will not need faith, we will not need hope because we are going to see Him as He is, and we shall be in His presence. There will no longer be any need for faith or hope. The only thing we will still need is love. The only thing that will endure through eternity is love. 

We cannot go wrong with love, because love will never fail. So pursue love. Love people first, and then let the gifts flow, then let the good deeds come. Wrap everything in love.

Prayer

Father we thank You for showing us this more excellent way of love. Help us Lord to believe the best, to hope the best, to see the best and to stick to the best that we see in people, through all the ups and downs. And we know that this love will not fail.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.