Relationships. Part 5. Enduring truth.

“Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not conceited, does not act improperly, is not selfish, is not provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. “. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Hcsb Bible

This will be the last in this series with this passage and such a great passage it is. It starts with great qualities of what love is, then says what it isn’t to help us figure it out and then it ends with more great qualities of love that is shown by Jesus and hopefully us in our everyday relationships with others.

So last time we were here, we were talking about how we need to forgive those that wrong us so that we don’t keep up a list of the wrongs and then become resentful towards the other person. The passage then takes a huge turn and then says that love never rejoices in unrighteousness and rejoices in the truth. This is important because if someone is keeping a list, then they will gladly jump on an accusation about the said person their mad at and not look for the truth.

Love wants to believe the best in people and look for the evidence to make sure any accusation is either true or false. Love will not get excited when someone else is brought down by an accusation. Has anyone ever heard of ‘innocent until proven guilty’. This very principle is supposed to be ingrained in our justice system in the United States as a building block of justice but it’s actually rooted in love.

For someone to have justice, there must first be the foundation of love for the truth, and not love for a good(dramatic or evil) story.

The problem is that too many times in our own lives we hear an accusation and immediately believe that it’s true because of the person that told us. The person could be a good friend of ours, our teacher or even the news media that you listen to. The problem is that, even though you may trust them, they may just be telling what they were told before and not actually telling you all of the facts.

Too many times a simple accusation can ruin someone’s relationships, jobs and even their entire life after that because people keep that wrong listed in their mind and don’t let him/her forget it.

This is not how we should love. We should always be looking for the truth in any given situation, especially in our relationships with others.

The verse says that we should love as to believe all things but this doesn’t mean that we should be naive but rather wise and and hoping the best for everyone.

In Matthew 10:16, Jesus tells his disciples that he’s sending them out and for them to be wise like serpents but innocent like doves. This means that we need to be wise and have discernment and therefore not believe every lie someone tells us. This also means that we should be innocent and want the best for the other person and not be evil towards them wanting them to be harmed.

At the very end of this selected passage, it says that love will bear and then endure all things. This is probably the hardest part of loving someone. The point that to love someone doesn’t end when you feel like it or rather after 3 strikes and you’re out, but rather we need to love people through it all and everything that happens.

This doesn’t mean to get stepped on by others but rather be willing to love them throughout your life. The most churchy example would be that God constantly loves us throughout our lives even after we betray him time after time after time. He doesn’t get stomped by us but rather is always there for us when we want to come back to him.

An example that is closer to home of this enduring love is that of our parents. You can ask your parents ( especially if they were good parents in the church) and they can probably tell you a thousand times of when you screwed up and made them mad. They won’t show anger towards but rather they will remember and they still love despite your constant screw ups with them. You probably don’t have to ask them, because you probably remember enough of your mistakes to humble yourself to be honest.

So in order to love someone better like God loves us, remember we need to be; patient, be kind, be gracious, be humble, be selfless and forgiving and be a truth seeker. Then at the end of this list, we keep doing these things everyday we wake up. We don’t stop once the feelings of euphoria and “lovey dovey” goes away but rather keep going throughout our lives. Jesus even says to love our enemies and I don’t believe he means we have to have “lovey dovey” feelings with our enemies. But rather our love should be a love of action and not a byproduct of our emotions.

Thank you for reading this. I hope you have a great day and if you ever have any questions or disagreements, just message me or comment below. I might continue this series with a different passage or be more specific and hone in one specific relationship later. If there is a specific topic you want, just comment and I’ll see if I can do it.