Love part 6

Eternity Online: John Edmiston (Editor)

Eternity-Inspiration for Monday 13th October

True Love Is Sturdy Stuff.

(1 Corinthians 13:7 NRSV) It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
(1 Corinthians 13:7 NIV) It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Hold on..we have to do a little Greek today! In Greek this verse reads panta stegei, panta pisteuei, panta elpizei, panta upomenei.... You can notice the repetive structure "panta" for all, or or all things and then the verbs....This verse is four verbs plus one other word sandwiched in between. It is full of action! The first verb "stegei" means to act as a roof which means either to "cover" all things or to "bear up" under all things just as columns supported a roof. It has both meanings. So we see the NRSV has "bears all things", while the NIV has "always protects". Both are possible translations and both are functions of love..so why not take both meanings.

Shakespeare might have been thinking of this verse when he wrote:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove;
O, no! it is an ever fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
  If this be error, and upon me prov'd,
  I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd

He says it so well! Love is "an ever fixed mark" it is a force that endures all and does not waver with trouble or change with the circumstances. What Hollywood calls love is not true love, it is a selfish little mockery of it. True love is sturdy stuff.

True love is a roof over all things. It makes a home. It provides shelter. It bears up. It gives that quality that says "I am safe here and will come to no harm." True love is not an inn where you have to pay or be thrown on the street. True love is a home where you are always welcome. When you love people with agape love they feel always safe with you, always protected, always "under your roof" so to speak.

True love believes all things. This does not mean that true love is gullible or naive. It does mean that true love believes in people. It does not steal dreams, it does not pour cold water on people, it is not sceptical, mean, distrustful and unbelieving. True love believes and continues to bellieve in people. True love is a cheer squad, a coach, a supporter, a believing ally in the struggles of life.

True love hopes all things. Agape love is future oriented. It is the love that has grace in its heart. Its the love that says "It does not matter what you have done or where you have landed up in life there is a new start and new hope just around the corner. Come with me!" Love does not write people off. Love finds something to hope for.

True love endures all things. Love hangs in there. Paul said "(2 Timothy 2:10 NKJV) Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." Paul put up with shipwrecks, beatings and imprisonment for the sake of the elect. He loved people. Love purposefully endures everything for those it loves. Missionaries pour out their lives for a tribe they love. Young lovers will cross oceans for each other and families will sell the house for a sick child. Love endures.

Prayer:

Lord make our love stick. Grant that we will make our hearts a home for others where they are believed in, hoped in and never written off, and where they know we will put up with them and still love them with all their faults. Make us aware of Your grace to so that we in turn might show great grace to others. Amen.

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John Edmiston ([email protected])
Editor - Eternity Online Magazine http://www.eternitymag.com/
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