Love - Lesson 10: Love Lived Out (8) – Bears All Things, Believes All Things, Hopes All Things, Endures All Things

Love

Lesson 10: Love Lived Out (8) – Bears All Things, Believes All Things, Hopes All Things, Endures All Things

1 Corinthians 13:7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

The Main Points for This Lesson:

This series of lessons will center around love as seen in chapter 13 of the apostle Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians. The purpose of these lessons is to teach about love: love's importance; what love looks like lived out, including what it is and what it isn't, and what it does and what it doesn't do; love's greatness.

In previous lessons we have seen that love is patient and love is kind. We have also been looking at what love is not and does not: Love doesn’t envy; Love doesn’t brag; Love is not proud; It doesn't behave itself inappropriately; It doesn't seek its own way; Love is not provoked; It takes no account of evil; Love doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. In this lesson we will continue this by considering that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. These items are not separate and unconnected. It seems that in some way or another each item affects another.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. While each of the items in this verse have a particular meaning, in this lesson, we will consider them first (and foremost) as expressing one characteristic about love. The main thought is this: Love patiently and faithfully seeks the good of others (particularly sinful men) with a long term view in mind. It could also be said, Love is in it for the long haul.

How is this idea different from the statement that love is patient? In some way they are the same, or at least similar. Patience includes endurance. With patience, we picture enduring difficulties, especially those caused by others, while responding with meekness (gentleness).

Positive and/or proactive. Patience is good. It is a foundation of love. The apostle Paul adds more to patience. It is good to meekly endure another person with their troubles. When we read that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, we are encouraged to grow in our love for others. We can begin to have a long term view for the other person as we patiently and faithfully seek their good. This includes patience, but it is patience with something more. It sees the person with all their problems and sins, but also looks at what they can be, either with repentance, or in time with help. While by birth it is a shadow of God's love, it is this love that parents have for their children. A parent endures the ups and downs of their child, while looking at what they can become.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. So this love bears with the problems and difficulties of the other person. It believes in the forgiveness of sins, and is willing to trust the other when God says we should. It hopes for the good of the other person and what they can be, even when surrounded by the troubles of the other person. It endures with the other person. It does not give up, but continues to work with and help the other person through the ups and downs.

This love as applied toward others. We find that we do not change overnight. Even with a true repentance and diligence, change takes time. We take steps forward and steps backward. Who will help us along the way? Some people may be patient with us for one moment along the way. Who will patiently help us all along the way, with our forward and backward steps, with our setbacks and frustrations? Only a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things will help bring others out of their darkness into God's light. God has such a love for us. It was seen in his Son, Jesus Christ. He commands us to have such a love for others.

Suggestions:

To open the lesson, pray for the teacher and the students.

Let the children know that we are having some lessons on 1 Corinthians 13, about love. While 1 Corinthians 13 is not the only place God teaches us about love, it provides a very helpful, practical, and (perhaps) easily understood description of love.

In this lesson, we will learn about what love looks like lived out in our lives.

Read 1 Corinthians 13:7. Love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,” is the focus of this lesson.

Explain that this verse (1 Corinthians 13:7) means something similar to patience. Ask the children if they can explain to you what patience is, and if they have any examples.

Ask the children if anyone has been patient with them over a long time. Has anyone helped them for many years? Help them to think of their parents (if they haven't already). Explain simply how parents care for their children for a long time, (partly) because they have a long-term view. They help you now to become something more as you grow up. God has such a love for us, and we (by God's help and Holy Spirit) can learn to have such a love for others.

This lesson does not have one or two single stories to illustrate this idea. Rather, several stories are listed in the story section. You can mention each story, and see if the children can fill in the details of them. As they fill in the details, help them to see how God shows this love toward us sinful men (Genesis 3:21; 6:5-8). Help them to see how God's children have also shown this love to others (Samuel, Elijah, Jeremiah, Barnabas).

Finally, ask the children if there is anyone they see day after day. (Brothers and sisters, classmates.) Do these people ever cause you trouble? (Most likely yes.) Point them to God's love for us, how God bears, believes, hopes and endures all things. Encourage them to love the people they see day after day with this type of love.

To close the lesson, pray with the children (perhaps asking God's help to love others faithfully and not give up), and have all the children read the Lord's prayer together. 

Stories:

Genesis 3:21

Adam and Eve disobeyed God, even believing that he was lying to them. God does introduce consequences, including death, as a result of this. Yet he is not done with the relationship. He clothes his rebellious creation with skins from an animal.

Genesis 6:5-8

Man, God's creation, has become so wicked that God is sorry he made man. Yet we find that God is not done with his relationship with man. Noah finds favor in his sight. God looks to a time beyond the flood, and even looks to a time far beyond that time with man in mind.

1 Samuel 12:16-25

The people wanted a king. Samuel felt rejected by the people, as he had been their judge, their leader. God had ruled as their king from heaven. Yet the people wanted something else. In these verses we see the love of Samuel for God's people. Though they had in a sense rejected him, yet he did not forsake them, but continued to care for them through his prayers and through his exhortations.

1 Kings 18:20-21

Elijah has seen many people of Israel follow after the idol Baal. Here we see that Elijah has not given up, he has not cast aside the children of Israel as hopeless and worthless. He longs for them to return to the Lord, and so continues to work toward that end.

Jeremiah 38:14-23

Some men of Jerusalem had just tried to kill Jeremiah. King Zedekiah had made no attempt to stop them (though he did allow others to rescue Jeremiah). Though he was mistreated and persecuted by the people, Jeremiah did not forsake them. Over and over he spoke to them, exhorting them, longing for them to walk in the ways of the Lord, the only path of peace. He had a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.

Acts 15:36-39

John Mark had deserted Barnabas and Paul during their first missionary journey (Acts 13:13). Barnabas was not willing to give up on John Mark. He wanted to take him on their second journey. It seems that Barnabas, in his relationship with John Mark, was looking much further down the road with a love that bears, believes, hopes and endures all things. It seems that Barnabas' love bore fruit, for John Mark was later found in the service of both the apostle Peter (1 Peter 5:13) and the apostle Paul (2 Timothy 4:11).

More Stories and Examples:

Luke 9:37-42 [37] On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great multitude met him. [38] Behold, a man from the crowd called out, saying, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. [39] Behold, a spirit takes him, he suddenly cries out, and it convulses him so that he foams, and it hardly departs from him, bruising him severely. [40] I begged your disciples to cast it out, and they couldn’t.” [41] Jesus answered, “Faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” [42] While he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him violently. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.

Other Verses:

Psalm 103:13-14 [13] Like a father has compassion on his children, so Yahweh has compassion on those who fear him. [14] For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust.

Proverbs 3:11-12 [11] My son, don’t despise Yahweh’s discipline, neither be weary of his reproof: [12] for whom Yahweh loves, he reproves; even as a father reproves the son in whom he delights.

Galatians 4:3-5 [3] So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world. [4] But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, [5] that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.

BEARS ALL THINGS

Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs.

Galatians 6:1-2 [1] Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted. [2] Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Colossians 3:12-14 [12] Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance; [13] bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do. [14] Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.

1 Peter 4:7-9 [7] But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer. [8] And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins. [9] Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.

BELIEVES ALL THINGS

Matthew 19:23-26 [23] Jesus said to his disciples, “Most certainly I say to you, a rich man will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven with difficulty. [24] Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.” [25] When the disciples heard it, they were exceedingly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” [26] Looking at them, Jesus said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

[see also Mark 10:23-27; Luke 18:24-27]

HOPES ALL THINGS

Hebrews 12:4-11 [4] You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin; [5] and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; [6] For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.” [7] It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? [8] But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not children. [9] Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? [10] For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. [11] All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised thereby.

Our Father in heaven has a long-term view as he raises us, his children.

Commentaries:

[*Gill*] 1 Corinthians 13:7

Beareth all things,

The burdens of fellow Christians, and so fulfils the law of Christ, which is the law of love; the infirmities of weak believers, and the reproaches and persecutions of the world: or "covers all things", as it may be rendered, even a multitude of sins, as charity is said to do, 1Pe 4:8 not by conniving at them, or suffering them to be upon a brother; but having privately and faithfully reproved for them, and the offender being brought to a sense and acknowledgment of them, he freely forgives them as trespasses against him, covers them with the mantle of love, and industriously hides and conceals them from others;

believeth all things;

that are to be believed, all that God says in his word, all his truths, and all his promises; and even sometimes in hope against hope, as Abraham did, relying upon the power, faithfulness, and other perfections of God; though such a man will not believe every spirit, every preacher and teacher, nor any but such as agree with the Scriptures of truth, the standard of faith and practice; nor will he believe every word of man, which is the character of a weak and foolish man; indeed, a man of charity or love is willing to believe all the good things reported of men; he is very credulous of such things, and is unwilling to believe ill reports of persons, or any ill of men; unless it is open and glaring, and is well supported, and there is full evidence of it; he is very incredulous in this respect:

hopes all things;

that are to be hoped for; hopes for the accomplishment of all the promises of God; hopes for the enjoyment of him in his house and ordinances; hopes for things that are not seen, that are future, difficult, though possible to be enjoyed: hopes for heaven and eternal happiness, for more grace here and glory hereafter; hopes the best of all men, of all professors of religion, even of wicked men, that they may be better and brought to repentance, and of fallen professors, who declare their repentance, and make their acknowledgments; he hopes well of them, that they are sincere, and all is right and will appear so:

endureth all things;

that are disagreeable to the flesh; all afflictions, tribulations, temptations, persecutions, and death itself, for the elect's sake, for the sake of the Gospel, and especially for the sake of Christ Jesus.9