An Enduring Love By: Joseph Parle, Ph.D. Academic Dean of the College of Biblical Studies Based on the work of Rich Thomson In The Heart of Man and the Mental Disorders

Hebrew Word Hesed (or Chesed) חֶסֶד

1 Corinthians 13:7 (NASB) [Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love Endures (1 Corinthians 13:7) Love bears as much as possible as long as possible Love believes the best in people and the ability of God to change people

Relationship to Corinth “Paul perceives himself as so manifesting his love and concern for Corinth as the Other that this love never tires of support, never loses faith, never exhausts hope, never gives up.” Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000), 1058.

1 Corinthians 4:14-15 (NASB) “I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.”

Summary of Love Endures In 1 Cor. 13:7, the key word is πάντα (panta), which may be translated adverbially as “always” This is what love continually does. Thiselton (2000: 1056) notes that it basically means that love has no limits, and he argues that a negation best captures the idea: “Love never tires of support, never loses faith, never exhausts hope, never gives up.” David E. Garland, 1 Corinthians, 619.

Love Bears All Things According to the BDAG lexicon, the Greek word for bear, στέγω, generally meant to cover something so that water does not come in. Hence it can mean to pass over something in silence or to bear up under difficulties.

Love Bears All Things "Marriage is three parts love and seven parts forgiveness of sin." - Laozi, Chinese philosopher (ca. 6th century BC)

Love Bears and Endures All Things The best interpretation of the phrase would seem to be: “Love doesn’t give way to the pressure of all things put upon it by others.” To “bear” is to be able to take any amount of pressure and not give way. To endure is to be able to go on and on and not give up.

Love Bears and Endures All Things Love does not give in (“bears”), and love does not get to the end of its rope (“endures”). And so the two together give a beautiful expression of the quality of love. Love bears the weight of any situation without collapsing, and it bears this weight as long as it needs to – on and on, steadfastly – and never ceases.

Love Endures All Things “Endures all things” (πάντα ὑπομένει) refers to love’s ability to hold out during trouble and affliction (cf. 2 Cor. 6:4; 12:12; 2 Tim. 2:10). David E. Garland, 1 Corinthians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2003), 620.

Love Believes All Things In other words, when love “believes all things” there is not room for suspicion, distrust, or cynicism. Love is not gullible, though, or naïve. It is evident that the eyes of love are not closed, for it has been seen that it “rejoices not in iniquity.” Love is fully aware of wrongs done.

Love Believes All Things Thus, it “believes all things” which are not clearly controverted by established facts. In this phrase, therefore, it is taught that love is not looking critically for wrong doing or wrong motive in others. It prefers to believe the best until there is no recourse but to accept the worst. And even then love prefers to find good in another rather than dwelling on the wrong.

Love Hopes All Things The hope of love doesn’t give up on others. There is always a way. And isn’t that the message of the Gospel? There is always hope in any situation. Love does not “write someone off.”

Love Hopes All Things “It doesn’t seem like he’ll ever change!” is the kind of statement which one might hear from an individual who has lost his hope in another and so has ceased to love. When one lacks love his attitude toward others is pessimistic, despairing, hopeless.

Paul’s Hope for the Corinthians As the relationship with Corinth gets rockier, Paul keeps firing off letters to the Corinthians because he does not believe that they are a hopeless case. He is confident in God that they will reform. David E. Garland, 1 Corinthians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2003), 620.

Love Endures Love bears as much as possible as long as possible Love believes the best in people and the ability of God to change people

Our Wedding Vows (Husband to Wife) I promise to love and cherish you, to honor and sustain you, in sickness as in health, in poverty as in wealth, in bad times as in good. I will love you as Christ loves the Church. I will be true to you in every way, in all things and at all times, and divorce, whether mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical, will never be an option to me.

Our Wedding Vows (Wife to Husband) I promise to love and cherish you, to honor and sustain you, in sickness as in health, in poverty as in wealth, in bad times as in good. I will be submissive and true to you in every way, in all things and at all times, and divorce, whether mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical, will never be an option to me.

Application Activity (Husband to Wife) I promise to love and cherish you, to honor and sustain you, in sickness as in health, in poverty as in wealth, in bad times as in good. I will love you as Christ loves the Church I will be true to you in every way, in all things and at all times, and divorce, whether mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical, will never be an option to me.

Application Activity (Wife to Husband) I promise to love and cherish you, to honor and sustain you, in sickness as in health, in poverty as in wealth, in bad times as in good. I will be submissive and true to you in every way, in all things and at all times, and divorce, whether mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical, will never be an option to me.

Application Activity for Church I promise to believe the best in my fellow church members, to bear the worst in my fellow church members, to speak well of them in their absence (especially if I do not have the courage to tell them in person) and make my best effort to love them as Christ loves them.