1 Corinthians 13:7

Beareth … believeth … hopeth … endureth all things.

Love’s labours

Notice--

I. The multitude of love’s difficulties.

1. The difficulties of love are many, for the apostle sets forth the opposing armies as four times “all things.” You will have to contend with “all things”--

(1) Within yourself. Nothing in your original nature will help you. God has put within you a new life, but the old life seeks to smother it.

(2) In the persons whom you are called upon to love. The best of the saints will try your patience; and as for the ungodly, everything in them will oppose the drawings of your love.

(3) In the world, for the world lieth in the wicked one, and all its forces run against love.

(4) In hell. The prince of the power of the air leads the van, and the host of fallen spirits eagerly follow him. Speak of crusades against the Paynim, what a crusade is this against hate and evil! Yet we shrink not from the fray.

2. Though love has many difficulties, it overcomes them all, and that four times.

(1) By patience, which “beareth all things.” Let the injury be inflicted, we will forgive it.

(2) By faith: we trust in Christ, and look for Divine succour, and so we “believe all things.”

(3) By hope: we rest in expectation that gentleness will win, and that long-suffering will wear out malice.

(4) By perseverance: we abide faithful to our resolve to love, we will not be irritated into unkindness. Baffled often, love “endureth all things.”

3. Love conquers on all four sides. Love makes a hollow square.

(1) Does God seem to smite love with afflictions? She “beareth all things.”

(2) Do her fellow Christians treat her ill? She believes everything that is good about them, and nothing that is injurious.

(3) Do the wicked rise against her? She hopes that yet they may be brought to a better mind.

(4) Do all her spiritual foes attack her with temptations and insinuations? She turneth patience against them, and by God’s grace “endureth all things.”

4. Love conquers in all stages of her life.

(1) She begins in conversion, and the powers of evil are at once aroused to seek her destruction. Then she “beareth all things.”

(2) She gathers strength, and “believing all things,” confesses her faith, and her fellow Christians are confirmed.

(3) Advancing a little farther, though often disappointed, she “hopes all things.”

(4) And when infirmities and old age come, and she can do little else but sit still, she still perseveres, and accepts even death without complaining, for love “endureth all things.”

II. The triumph of love’s labour. Her labours are fourfold.

1. In bearing all things. “Bear” might be translated “cover.” The two ideas may be blended, however. Love bears all things in silence, concealing injuries as much as possible even from herself.

(1) Think of this word “covers.”

(a) In reference to the brethren. It is not honourable to men or women to be common informers. Love stands in the presence of a fault, with a finger on her lip. She imitates the pearl oyster. A. hurtful particle intrudes itself and, unable to eject the evil, it covers it with a precious substance extracted out of its own life, by which it turns the intruder into a pearl. I would desire to keep ready for my fellow Christians a bath of silver, in which I could electroplate all their mistakes into occasions for love. As the dripping well covers with its own deposit all that is placed within its drip, so would love cover all within its range with love, thus turning even curses into blessings.

(b) As to “bearing all,” apply the text mainly to trials in dealing with the unconverted. Ignore any repulsiveness that there may be in them. Bear with their ignorance of the gospel, their hardness of heart, and their jests. Would you see the perfection of the charity that beareth all things? Behold your Divine Lord. Oh, what He has covered!

2. In believing all things. In reference--

(1) To our fellow Christians. True love believes good of others as long as it can, and when it is forced to fear that wrong has been done, gives the accused the benefit of many a doubt. When the thing is too clear, love says, “Yes, but the friend must have been under very strong temptation,” or else that the good man must have been mistaken. Love’s blind eye is to the fault, and her bright is for the excellence. It is said that once, in the streets of Jerusalem, there lay a dead dog, and every one reviled it. One spoke of its currish breed, another of its lean and ugly form, etc.; but one passed by who said, “What white teeth it has!” Men said, as He went on His way, “That is Jesus of Nazareth.” Surely it is ever our Lord’s way to see good points wherever He can.

(2) To the unconverted. She does not believe that they are converted, but she believes that their conversion is possible, and expects that the word she speaks will be God’s instrument of salvation. Do you want a model of this? Look to your Divine Master once again. He had no faith in man’s goodness, for “He knew what was in man”; but He had great faith in what could be done in men and for them, and for the joy that was set before Him in this He endured the Cross, despising the shame.

3. In “hoping all things.” Love never despairs.

(1) Hope all things about your brethren, and if you should be forced to see sad signs in them, yet, remember that some of the brightest believers have had their faults. Remember yourself, lest you also be tempted.

(2) As to the unconverted, you will never do anything with them unless you hope great things about them. When the good Samaritan found the poor man half dead, if he had not hoped about him he would never have poured in the oil and the wine, but would have left him there to die. Would you see a model of this? Our blessed Lord despaired of none, but went after those whom others would have given up.

4. In enduring all things. This is perhaps the hardest work of all, for many people can be affectionate and patient for a time, but the task is to hold on year after year. In reference--

(1) To our fellow Christians, love holds out under all rebuffs. If your brethren are angry without a cause, be sorry for them, but do not let them conquer you by driving you into a bad temper.

(2) To the unconverted. Our Lord said, “I will make you fishers of men.” If you go out fishing for souls you will have to endure all things, for some whom you have been seeking for a long time will grow worse instead of better.

III. The sources of love’s energy. Love’s art is learned at no other school but at the feet of Jesus, where the Spirit of love doth rest on those who learn of Him. Love wins these victories, for--

1. It is her nature. The nature of love is self-sacrifice.

2. She has four companions. Tenderness that “beareth all things”; faith that “believeth all things”; hope and patience which “endureth all things.”

3. She sucks her life from Christ. Love can bear, believe, hope, and endure because Christ has borne, believed, and hoped, and endured for her. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The wide scope of love

Grief is near-sighted, and holds its trouble close up, but love is long-sighted, and takes the events of life, and looks at them in all points of view, and sees how they look against the east, and how against the west, how toward the north, and how toward the south, how above and how below, how against one background, and how against another. Love looks upon a thing all around, in its germs and in its fruits, in its presence and in its coming. It sympathises not with the limitation of grief, but with the largeness of that love of humanity which is in every event. (H. W. Beecher.)

The magnanimity of love

I. Beareth (covereth) all things--with a mantle of charity--as far as circumstances will admit.

II. Believeth all things.

1. To the advantage of its neighbour.

2. Until convinced by the clearest evidence.

III. Hopeth all things.

1. Good of others.

2. Or that can possibly alleviate the wrong.

3. Or contribute to its amendment.

IV. Endureth all things when there is no relief.

1. Without a murmur.

2. Without resentment.

3. Without reproach. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Charity beareth all things

The real meaning of the word is “concealeth.” It does the very thing which it is always asking God to do, hides its face from, and shuts its eyes to, the sins of others. It is charity which applies to itself what it asks of God in the Miserere, and in the De profundis. It turns away its face from the sins of others, and in that deep of God’s love it buries and conceals them.

1. It is terrible to think what a keen eye we have for each other’s faults. It is sad to think how clever we are at ferreting them out, either for our own or for our neighbour’s amusement. Even the dead are sometimes not suffered to rest unmolested in their graves. True it is that they are out of the reach of the tongue of slander or uncharitableness, but the sin is not the less great for all that.

2. Now charity, so far from injuring the reputation of any person by exposing their faults, not only conceals them, but protects these very persons, and interposes a shield, as it were, between them and the attack of their enemies. The very meaning of the word protect is to hide or conceal, by interposing some object between one who would seek to injure another. No doubt, from time to time, cases will arise where faults have to be brought to light and plainly told. But we must make quite sure that it is our business to find them out, and when we do speak, to be careful that we are not gratifying any prejudice of our own.

3. But to bear all things, in the sense of concealing the faults of others, is indeed to have a Christ-like spirit. It is to resemble Him very closely. It is to walk very closely in His loving footsteps. When need arose our gentle Lord was stern and strong in His reproofs. But how often He passes over faults! How ready He is to make excuses for or to conceal or hide them! Let two instances alone suffice: first, in the case of the woman taken in the deadliest of deadly sins. Then, again, on the Cross. (J. B. Wilkinson, M.A.)

Charity willing to undergo all sufferings in the way of duty

I. Explain the doctrine. It implies that those that have Christian love--

1. Are willing not only to do, but also to suffer, for Christ (Luke 14:27).

2. Have the spirit to undergo all the sufferings to which their duty to Christ may expose them. They are willing to undergo all sufferings

(1) Of all kinds.

(a) Reproach and contempt (2 Corinthians 12:10).

(b) Hatred and ill-will (Matthew 10:22).

(c) Losses in their outward possessions (Philippians 3:8); in their ease and comfort (2 Corinthians 6:4).

(d) Persecution (Hebrews 11:35):

(e) Death itself (Matthew 10:39).

(2) Of all degrees, like pure gold, that will bear the trial of the hottest furnace.

II. Some reason or proof of the doctrine.

1. If we have not such a spirit, it is an evidence that we have never given ourselves unreservedly to Christ. It is necessary to our being Christians that we should give ourselves to Him, wholly, only, and for ever.

2. They that are truly Christians, so fear God, that His displeasure is far more terrible than all earthly afflictions and sufferings.

3. They that are truly Christians, have that faith whereby they see that which is more than sufficient to make up for the greatest sufferings (2 Corinthians 4:17; Hebrews 11:24).

4. If we are not willing to close with religion, notwithstanding all the difficulties attending it, we shall be overwhelmed with shame at last (Luke 14:28).

5. Without this spirit which the text implies, we cannot be said to forsake all for Christ. If there be any one kind or degree of temporal suffering that we have not a spirit to undergo for Christ, then there is something that we do not forsake for Him (Luke 14:26, etc.).

6. Without this spirit we cannot be said to deny ourselves in the sense in which the Scriptures require us to do it (Matthew 16:24).

7. It is the character of all the true followers of Christ that they follow Him in all things.

8. It is the character of true Christians that they overcome the world (1 John 5:4).

9. The sufferings in the way of duty are often, in the Bible, called temptations or trials, because by them God tries the sincerity of our characters as Christians (1 Peter 1:6; 1 Peter 4:12).

Conclusion:

1. How happy those persons are represented in the Scriptures to be who have a spirit to suffer, and do actually suffer, for Christ (Matthew 5:10).

2. What glorious rewards God has promised hereafter to bestow on those that do willingly suffer for Christ (Matthew 19:29; 2 Timothy 2:11).

3. How the Scriptures abound with blessed examples of those that have suffered for Christ’s sake! (Jon. Edwards.)

Charity believeth all things

Go tell a mother of the faults of her absent son. You must adduce the clearest evidence before she will yield her reluctant credence: and even then it is not yielded without many misgivings and conjectural qualifications in favour of her child. She demands whether you yourself witnessed the things of which you speak, or whether your informant were a truthful and unprejudiced person, or whether the report may not have originated in some unfriendly motive, or whether there be not some circumstance in connection with the facts that would give them a different aspect, or whether after all it were not some other child instead of her own. Rather than credit the report of her darling’s culpability, she would believe a dozen persons in error, or even guilty of malicious falsehood. But, on the other hand tell her of the good and noble conduct of her boy; unexceptional deportment, his studious habits and proficiency in learning; and instantly you see the glad conviction beaming in her eye, and mantling all her features with sunny joy; and perhaps she adduces many confirmations of your encomium, and tells you the finest things concerning her son, and expatiates enthusiastically upon his rare and noble qualities. What is it but love that renders her so incredulous to what is said against him, and so ready to receive without abatement or qualification all that is uttered in his praise? And Christian love, operating in another sphere, differs nothing in this respect from natural maternal affection, powerfully inclining the heart to faith in the moral excellence of its object. The apostle tells us that “faith worketh by love “; is it not equally true that love worketh by faith?(J. Cross, D.D.)

Charity believeth all things

If we really love a person we implicitly trust him. So, and in a far higher degree, if we really love God we cannot but believe in Him. True it is that the actions of our friends often perplex us, and even distress, but for all that we do not lose our love for them, and if our love be a rightly founded love, we do not lose our confidence in them. So must it be with God and us, our love and trust in Him must be so implicit and so unquestioning, that we must be ready with Job to say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” It is just the want of this child-like trustful faith which makes us suspicious about our fellow-men, and which, at the same time, makes us cold and incredulous, or unbelieving in our religion. On the one hand we are always afraid of being imposed upon or unduly influenced, on the other we are afraid of believing too much, and so we are apt to be reserved, to hold back coldly, not only from our fellow-men, but from God. Limits, and rightly there must be somewhere, but to believe too much is always safer than to believe too little: and probably to be imposed upon many times is safer and more charitable than to hold back once when we ought to go forward. (J. B. Wilkinson, M.A.)

The faith of love

I. Operates in manifold directions.

1. There is a sense in which it finds exercise towards God. The heart that loves God is not tormented with the mysteries of His Providence. The lips of love say, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” In the midst of inscrutable events in individual or national life, the filial child of God “believeth all things” about His wisdom and love.

2. It finds frequent exercise in relation to the imperfections of friendship. Often in social life there is need for the best construction to be put upon some word or some action. Love so believes in the beloved that it eagerly puts that construction.

3. It finds exercise in relation to mankind generally. With the true “enthusiasm of humanity,” its views of men, its interpretations of men are inspired by a faith it is very unwilling to forego. And thus, as long and as far as possible, it “believeth all things.”

II. Is an unspeakable gain to men. For who cannot see that to have--

1. Unbroken repose in God’s government.

2. Ungrudging trust in friendship, and--

3. Unfaltering belief in humanity, exerts the highest influences on--

(1) Piety.

(2) Philanthropy? (U. R. Thomas.)

All the graces of Christianity connected

I. The manner in which they are connected.

1. They always go together. Where there is one, there are all, and where one is wanting, all are wanting.

2. They depend upon one another. One cannot be without the others. To deny one would in effect be to deny another, and so all.

3. They are, in some respects, implied one in another. Thus, e.g., humility is implied in faith, etc.

II. Some reasons of their being thus connected and dependent.

1. They are all from the same source (1 Corinthians 12:4; 1 Corinthians 12:6).

2. They are all communicated in the same work of the Spirit, namely, conversion. There is not one conversion of the soul to faith, and another conversion to love, etc.

3. That they all have the same root and foundation, namely, the knowledge of God’s excellence (Psa 9:10; 1 John 3:6; 1 John 4:7).

4. That they all have the same rule, namely, the law of God (James 2:10).

5. They have the same end, viz., God.

6. They are alike related to one and the same grace, namely, charity, or Divine love, as the sum of them all.

Conclusion:

1. The subject may aid us to understand in what sense old things are said to be done away, and all things become new, in conversion (2 Corinthians 5:17). A true convert, the moment he is converted, is possessed not of one or two, but of all holy principles, and all gracious dispositions.

2. Hence, also, they that hope they have grace in their hearts may try one grace by another; for all graces go together. If persons think they have faith, they should inquire whether their faith was accompanied with repentance, etc. And so persons should examine their love by their faith. (Jon. Edwards.)

Charity hopeth all things

I. The limitation. We must tie our hope to God’s promise, and limit one duty by another, our hope by our prayers. What God commands me to pray for, what He hath promised to give, may raise my hope, Some things there are which are not to be numbered “amongst this all.” Some things are “as good as nothing”; and my estate may be bettered in being without them. Some things are worse than nothing; and my estate will be far worse if I have them. Some things are “indifferent,” neither good nor evil; and a bare “if” may make it either good or evil to hope for them. Some things are evil “in their own nature,” and a great sin it is to hope for these. Some things appear evil to us, viz., affliction, poverty, disgrace: and these I am so far from hoping for, as that I may pray against them.

II. The extension.

1. All good things. For, to wait for the twilight with the adulterer; to catch at all opportunities which may be as steps to bring to the pinnacle of honour; to have “our eyes still watching upon the prey,” is not hope, but lust, or ambition, or covetousness.

2. Future, absent goods; goods at a distance. For when the object is present, hope is no more. Charity “is patient” (verse 4), draws in its breath, as it were, and stayeth, and defers, and prolongs itself (Romans 8:25).

3. Matters of difficulty. For hope loves to struggle with its object, and sometimes is increased by opposition, and made bolder by being frighted. But if the object be “at hand and cheap,” my hope is lazy and asleep; “hope above hope, hope against hope” (Romans 4:18), that, is hope indeed. The way of hope is hard and rugged. She passeth by the pomp of the world, and she treadeth dangerous paths. If a serpent be in the way, she feareth not; if a flower, some pleasing object, she gazeth not; but presses on forward, over riches and poverty, over honour and disgrace, over all relations and dependencies, and striveth forward to her object.

4. Good things, though hard to obtain, yet “possible.” For charity is not foolish and indiscreet: it ploughs not, the air, nor sows upon the rocks. What is easy and at hand cannot raise a hope and what is impossible overwhelms and swallows it. What is ready to fall into my bosom, I need not hope for: and what I cannot have doth scarce produce a wish, much less beget a hope. (A. Farindon, D.D.)

Charity hopeth all things

Suppose the matter is investigated. What will charity do now? She “hopeth all things.” May not some palliation be found which will relieve the case of its darker features? First appearances are often deceptive, circumstantial evidence is frequently fallacious, and even direct testimony cannot always be relied upon; and charity hopes that, though many things now look suspicious, some future discovery or explanation will make the innocence of the accused perfectly clear to all. People often form an unfavourable opinion of others from some error of their own, or from an ex-parte statement by a third person; and charity hopes that, when the other side comes to be heard, the opposing testimony may be sufficient to obliterate the false or passing impression already thus produced. Some speakers are always using superlatives; and charity hopes that the affair, having passed from tongue to tongue, a little embellished or exaggerated by every repetition, will be found less flagrant than at first represented. The world is largely given to lying, and defamation is one of the most prevalent vices of society, and envious tongues can never rest till they have blasted some overshadowing reputation or checked the career of some ambitious rival; and charity hopes that the allegation may turn out in the end to be altogether groundless, the despicable work of one of those depraved souls who are always trying to put out another’s light that their own may shine the brighter. Wrong-doing sometimes originates in ignorance or infirmity, in misinformation or misjudgment, where there is no evil motive, where the intention is even friendly and benevolent; and charity hopes that, while the deed itself wears a questionable aspect, it may yet be made to appear that the error was more in the head than in the heart, that it was rather an involuntary mistake than an intentional wrong, and that better information in the future will prevent its repetition. The sinner is not always incorrigible, the worst offenders have occasionally been reformed, and no one ought to be delivered over to Satan for the first or second delinquency; and charity hopes that, if the accused is really guilty, and guilty to the full extent of the finding, he is not yet quite past all power of recovery, but may by proper means be brought to repentance and plucked as a brand from the burning. In short, amidst all that is unfavourable and discouraging, charity hopes on, hopes ever; unwilling to abandon her efforts in behalf of the beloved delinquent, still pursuing him with prayers and tears and tender remonstrances. Who has not seen the Christian mother patiently bearing With the irregularities of a wild and wayward son, hoping to reclaim him from his wicked ways, even when all others have given him up in despair? Who has not seen the meek and long-suffering wife, after years of cruel annoyance and guilty provocation, planning, toiling, watching, night and day, in hope of recovering a debauched and abandoned husband out of the snare of evil habit and vicious companionship, and raising him up from his moral degradation to the dignity of a virtuous and sober life? (J. Cross, D.D.)

Charity hopes for others

As we build up ourselves, so must we edify others also, “in our most holy faith”; and as we hope for all things for ourselves, so must we reserve a hope for those also who are tied in the same link and bond of love. When we see a house tottering, we must not make our censure a wind to blow it down; but hope that even a broken beam, a loose rafter, nay, the very rubbish itself, may in time be made a sound part of the building. When I see my brother fall, I must lend him my hand to help him up. If my hand will not help him, I must lend him my pity and compassion and prayer. And when all the rest fail, I must give him my hope. Charity hath an eye abroad as well as at home; nor doth she nurse up hope for herself alone, but makes it as catholic as the Church, nay, as the world. Saith Cicero, “Hope lasteth as long as life lasteth, nor can it expire but with the soul.” And bow desperately soever we see our brother plunged in sin, yet we must hope well that his sickness is not unto death. And indeed why should we not hope well of every man, suppose he were a Judas, and by our Christian industry strive to recover his drooping soul, and to revive the flame of charity in his breast, which may warm him into a temperate hope? How know we but that the word of God through our ministry may of this stone raise up a child unto Abraham? Let our weak brother be “lame hand and foot,” sick in head and heart; yet as long as there is life in him, our charity must visit him, and our hope make us active to his recovery; otherwise, like unskilful physicians, we shall suffer him to die under our hands, and then pretend his disease was incurable. The priest and the Levite, who saw the man wounded on the way, and passed by on the other side, are not proposed as patterns of our imitation, but the Samaritan (Luke 10:30). How sinful soever a man be, yet if he come behind, and but touch the hem of Christ’s garment, the grace of God may cure him. Nay, were he dead in sin, who knows what God may do? (A. Farindon, D.D.)

The hopefulness of love

This quality of love follows as a consequence from the last-named element, viz., “faith.” While this hopefulfulness is again a source of the next quality--endurance. The hopefulness of love.

I. Is attested by

1. Its nature. For love will not let go any ground for expecting the best things concerning the admired, or for anticipating the best things concerning even the pitied. Unwilling to forebode ill, it is sanguine ever of good.

2. Its history. Love is always known to be declining when it is unhopeful. The infinite love is the God of hope.

II. Gives life and beauty to love. Whilst love is a source of hope, hope again feeds the lamp of love. It suggests the better explanation of what seems mysterious in human or in Divine procedure, and thus it endows love with an eye that never grows dim. (U. R. Thomas.)

Charity endureth all things

Like the storks of Delft that when the city was burning, having vainly tried, to carry off their callow young, resolutely remained and perished in the effort to protect them, charity first exhausts all her energies in the service of miserable man, and then sacrifices herself for those she could not save. Rather, like the Roman soldier who kept his place at the Herculanean Gate of Pompeii till the fiery storm entombed him where he stood, she maintains her position to the last, and will be found erect in full armour at her post when the world’s catastrophe shall fall. As J. A. James says, “Her energies increase with the difficulty that requires them,” says the writer just quoted; “and, like a well-constructed arch, she becomes firmer by what she has to sustain.” Charity is not a spark falling into the ocean, nor a snowflake descending into the voice, no; but a mass of gold cast into the furnace, and surviving the flame by which it is purified. Unchanged and unchangeable as her Lord, charity is superior to all adversity, to all hostility, to all the powers of earth and hell. Censures, slanders, curses, threatenings, cannot daunt her heroic spirit; nor losses, exiles, prisons, scourges, crosses, wear out her energies. She lies calm among the lions, and walks unharmed in flames. She smiles at the inquisitor’s engine, and triumphs at the martyr’s stake. Wearing her fetters more proudly than royal lady ever wore her jewels, and glorying in her wreath of thorns more than oriental princes in their diadems, she lives on through a thousand tribulations, invincible to the last hour of life, exulting in the last agony of death, and serenely falling asleep on the bosom of her Beloved, to awake satisfied with His likeness in the glory of immortality. (J. Cross, D.D.)

The endurance of love

Though not wholly dissimilar from the virtue described in the word “beareth,” which suggested to us the tolerance of love, the characteristic here asserted is not precisely the same. This indicates the force of love to sustain quietly and to survive all persecutions and distresses inflicted by others. Indeed, our word “endure” embodies the thought very completely.

I. Love has to endure much This is strange, but it is true. Love is not requited with love, but often with misunderstanding and even with hatred. Error hates truth, selfishness hates love. Christ’s biography supplies the climax of the proof of this. But all loving bears witness to the same experience. Does not God endure much?

II. Love is able to endure much. The distresses and persecutions that seem to have force enough in them to blast and burn out all they oppose, have been again and again as harmless to love as the fiery furnace to the three Hebrew youths. Fierce fire cannot consume it; many waters cannot quench it. (U. R. Thomas.)