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Love Endures All Things

StoneWall

I am on vacation for the rest of the month and therefore away from blogging. In effort to continue to provide some content I have asked the other elders at Emmaus Bible Church if I could post the notes from our weekly confession of sin on Sunday morning. It is always a rich time together as we prepare our hearts for worship by considering what God requires and what Christ has done. In these posts I will post the material from 1 Cor 13 reminds us of what the Bible says about love. It is teaching us about where we need to repent even as it teaches us how we must treasure Christ. Each day will unpack a section of the passage. May these serve you just as they served us at Emmaus!


 1 Corinthians 13:7d “…love endures all things…”

The fourth clause of 1 Corinthians 13:7 says that “…love endures all things…” This word, “endure” is a compound word, combining the words for “under” and “to remain, abide or continue”. In a strict literal sense this word “endure” means “to remain under”.

In the Scriptures is it often used of enduring to the end of life, awaiting our eternal prize, and also of living through long-term trials. It bears some similarity to the first phrase in v7, “bears all things”. However, whereas to “bear all things” seems to refer to patience in the face of provocation, to “endure all things” takes a longer view.

In our context to “endure all things” word means that we are willing to remain in difficult situations for the sake of one another, rather than seeking our own ease through escape. This means that when our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are making life difficult for us, we don’t look for a way out. Since we are talking about long term perspective, we need to admit that “hoping all things” is not enough; if we will “endure all things” we will need a front row seat. That means that we are willing to stand in there and take some abuse in the name of seeing each other through to the end.

All of our positive expectations don’t mean much when we essentially plan to pop back into the picture when things are a little less rocky. If our fellow Christians are going to grow, it isn’t God’s design that they do it alone. And let’s face it: some Christians lives are train-wrecks. Being close to these people means hassle, heartbreak, and offense…but Christians buy tickets for trains they know will wreck.

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