TEXT: I Corinthians 13:7d

SUBJECT: What Love is #13: Enduring

"Love...endures all things". What does this mean? To endure is to "stand up under pressure". It is a military term for the discipline, the courage, and the patience of a worthy soldier. On guard duty, he doesn't give in to sleep or boredom. Facing the enemy, he doesn't give in to fear. Under the command of a bad officer, he doesn't give in to resentment. He sticks with it; he "endures".

This is what God wants us to do. He wants us to love one another with a firm and lasting love. In this way, we imitate our Lord Jesus, Who "...having loved His own who were in the world, loved them to the end". Even when they weren't too lovable; even when He had other things on His mind.

Is brotherly love passionate? It may be. But intensity is not the "big thing". It's "endurance" that matters most. Not infatuation, but commitment is what the Lord wants in His people.

The object of enduring love is "all things". This means we're to keep on loving others in spite of what they are or what they do.

Do some people "rub you the wrong way"? If so, endure. Do they say stupid and offensive things? If so, endure. Do they hurt you by their actions? If so, endure. Don't just "put up with them". Endure them in love.

This sounds good in theory, but can it be practiced? It can be. Paul, for one, practiced what he preached. Never has a man done more for a church than Paul. He came to an idolatrous city and preached the Gospel, despite bitter opposition. When some believed, he taught and discipled them while working full-time at a secular job. When they needed him, he was there for them--caring for them as a father does his own dear children. Great service!

How was it repaid? He tells us: "The more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved" (II Corinthians 12:15). Did this wicked ingratitude make him quit loving them? It didn't! "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you..."

What enabled Paul to do this? It wasn't his office in the church or his splendid gifts or his immense knowledge or his long experience. It was his brotherly love! It "endured all things". Even the Corinthians!

Why should we endure others in love? One good reason to do so is because we're commanded to! "As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you, continue in My love" (John 15:9). Is our Lord's love for us fixed or fickle? It is fixed, permanent, enduring. "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3). He commands us to love one another in the same way He has loved us. Duty is not the highest motive, but it is a motive! And a good one, too. If you can't work up warm, fuzzy feelings for other people, at least submit to the Lordship of Christ and...love them anyway!

You may be surprised. When you try to love others whom you don't really love, you just may end up really loving them.

A second reason to endure with others in love is because it will do you good. What? Loving difficult people is an unpleasant thing, a wretched thing. And so it is--if all you're doing is thinking about loving them. But when you start serving them in love--somehow or other--you start liking it. How can this be? Because Jesus Christ makes you happy in loving His people. "This is My commandment, that you love one another...that your joy may be full". Not "their" joy, but "yours".

A third reason to endure with others in love is it will do them good. Hate breeds hate; fights start fights; neglect increases neglect. But love? It has a way of making others love, too. This may not occur right away; the opposite may even occur. But in the long-run, your love will have a positive effect on those you love. "We love Him because He first loved us". In a lower sense, of course, others begin loving us when we love them. How can this not be true? What is more lovable than love?

A fourth reason to endure with others in love is it will provide the world with an alternative to its hateful ways. No word is more popular than "love". "All you need is love" sang the Beatles. The problem is, it has been debased; it has become lust, exploitation, selfishness. Very few will admit this--but everyone knows it. After a time, it sickens everyone. They want something else. But they don't know where to turn.

That's where the Church comes in. We must present the world with "something else". We must show people that there is such a thing as "love", and that it is not a "con job"--a way of getting at them, their money, their service, and so on.

The best reason to endure with others in love is because it is God's way. In His Sermon on the Mount, our Lord compares two kinds of "love"--Publican love and Divine love. The former is based on being loved--they "love those who love them and salute those who salute them". This is how most people nowadays love.

But Divine love? God loves "the evil, the unjust" and "the unthankful". In other words, His love is gracious and enduring. And our Lord tells us to do the same, "...that you may be children of your Father in heaven".

How do we endure with one another in love? I won't keep you long here. Everything I've said the past four months applies here as well. Two things, though, bear repeating.

Firstly, remember how enduring God's love is for you. Before the world was, "in love He predestined [you]". He loves you no less now than He did then. And He won't quit loving you at any time, not even when

"The trumpet of the Lord

shall sound, and

Time shall be no more."

It is mighty hard to think of His enduring love for you and to then give up loving others. "Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you".

Secondly, remember you don't have to endure with others very long. "What is our life? It is but a vapor". What is fifty years of enduring others in love compared to eternity? It is a "Light affliction which is but for a moment". If only we could gaze upon "not the things that are seen", but at the "things which are not seen; the things which are eternal". Then we'd start loving one another. And "Enduring all things".