Love The Ones You're With

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1 Corinthians 13:1–13 ESV
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:1 ESV
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1 Corinthians 13:2 ESV
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:3 ESV
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:4 ESV
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1 Corinthians 13:5 ESV
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1 Corinthians 13:6 ESV
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1 Corinthians 13:7 ESV
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love bears all things. It means to keep covered.
Interestingly, Paul is the only person in the New Testament that uses this word.
it is not to endure. It is not to excuse. It means to cover. Love covers all things.
Love covers all unfavorable matters.
Jack Wilhite at K-mart.
What happens amongst rivals or enemies or those we have a difference with? Do we do our best to tell others about their faults and foibles? Or do we act charitably? Do we rush to the radio station or our social media account to reveal our news to the world? Or do we look beyond and look over?
Love that covers is like God’s love. It keeps silent about unfavorable matters.
Love BELIEVES.
It is the word from which we get faith. It notes reliance,, trust, and belief.
The sense of the word here is to entrust or commit one’s self to another. So in the context of sitting behind ‘bear”, which meant to “cover”, this word means that we trust each other enough to actually “cover”. That is to say that true love is able to trust another person with one’s deepest secrets, one’s most heart felt emotions, and not only with their life- but with their soul.
Jesus said, Luke 16.11
Luke 16:11 ESV
11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?
John 2:23–24 ESV
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people
Jesus had the omniknowledge to know the details of every human being. Every hair, every cell, every drop of dna, and every motive. He knew when he could trust and when he could not.
You and I do not.
So love, loved that trusts others, is a very difficult matter- particularly if you’ve been burned before. By those who should not be burning others.
And in this sense, We should be “bear”ing each others burdens as well as trusting each other with them.
In other words, creating an atmosphere of trust and mutual love and respect that allows that to take place. And this IS specific to church life together.
Love HOPES all things. To expect something. Expectation of the future either good or bad.

The main difference from the OT is that the act of salvation has now been accomplished in Christ, so that hope itself is an eschatological blessing, and there is every reason for confidence such as Paul has in the Corinthians (2 Cor. 1: 12ff.).

Hope is grounded in the saving work of Jesus on the cross.
Romans 8:24–25 ESV
24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
AND, this hope is sustained by the spirit of God given to believers in salvation as in Romans 8.26-27
Romans 8:26–27 ESV
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
this hope is, in spite of whatever circumstance, we can trust God for our future… whether we live or die we are the Lord’s…
This entire verse is based on trust.... first in God, then in people. And the church requires this.
Finally, Love ENDURES all things.
Endurance is the basic attitude of Christian believers in view of their own eschatological orientation of their faith. (We are awaiting the kingdom of God).
Endurance is not bravery or uncaring.... it is an attitude derived from the belief and hope that is found in the Christian gospel.
This endurance does the right thing in the face of the worst thing.
This endurance may suffer for its own sake, but it does so in the hope of Jesus Christ.
This endurance is not shameful, but rather follows the pattern that Jesus gave when he died on the cross.
This endurance is motivated by the faith in the one who died for us.
And in the context of the church, this endurance directly relates to people- both believers and not .
This endurance dies with Christ because it knows it will one day live with him.
2 Timothy 2.11-12 says,
2 Timothy 2:11–12 ESV
11 The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;
Before we leave, let’s summarize.
Listen to verses 4-7 one more time.
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 ESV
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Few people live this way. What Paul has described is for many people a lifestyle that is either a joke or trash. Our society does not encourage it.
And Paul insists that Christian living, church life… demands it.

THREE QUESTIONS ABOUT CHRISTIAN LOVE

Before the bottom line, three questions:
Where do you see Jesus bearing, hoping, believing, and enduring?
Where do you see yourself bearing, hoping, believing , and enduring?
If we were like that, how would it work itself out in practice in our own lives and our Christian life?
All of this only matters if we remember why Paul wrote it. It wasn’t to make weddings more poetic, or marriages more stable. It wasn’t written to teach us to love- it assumes we already know that because we’ve accepted God’s love in Christ’s death.
no, this was written to a divided and spiritually jealous church- to tell them how to become one and live in harmnony.
Bottom line:

Christ Loved The Church And Gave Himself Up For It

Ephesians 5:25 ESV
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
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