“What Love Really Looks Like!” #9
Text: 1 Corinthians 13
“Love Bears All Things!” - vs 7
The cultural definition of love is vague at best, watered down, these days it's
just a word used loosely, typically to get an advantage or a desired outcome! We're so removed from the practical use of the word
but what's scary is how far removed we've become from the spiritual weight of
the word! So far we've learned that love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous, love does not brag and is not arrogant, love does not act unbecomingly, love does not seek his own, love is not provoked, love doesn't remember wrongs, and that love doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with
the truth!
With this blog I want to go verse by verse through
the pictures of what “agape”,
true, biblical love looks like! I want us to see how Jesus' loved! In each blog I want to view the particular picture
of love in these scenarios, Spiritually, Specifically, and Socially!Let's find out what it means, love bears all
things. But first we to need dive into a
word study concerning our text.
- The greek is stego (ste'-gō) pas (pä's) -
στέγω stégō, steg'-o; from G4721; to roof over, i.e. (figuratively) to cover with silence
(endure patiently):—(for-)bear, suffer.
- This word is used 6 times in 4 verses in the NT -
It's first used earlier in this letter in 1
Corinthians 9:12 as Paul is speaking of his authority and the need for the body
(church) to sustain the ministers but how he ENDURED all things to not hinder
the gospel.
It's used in our text then its used 4 times in 1 Thessalonians
3: verses 1 & 5. Here Paul speaks of his passion for those at Thessaloniki
and how when he could no longer wait he sent Timothy and Silas to them, then in
verse 5 how he couldn't bear the wait in hearing of their faith! He ENDURED!
Pas – πᾶς pâs, pas; including all the forms of declension; apparently a
primary word; all, any, every, the whole:—all (manner of, means), alway(-s),
any (one), daily, ever, every (one, way), as many as, no(-thing), X thoroughly,
whatsoever, whole, whosoever.
- Used 1,000+ times -
Love protects, covers, preserves, conceals, endures,
carries, NEVER GIVES UP! True love sees no obstacle too strong, no divide too
wide, no mountain too high, no cut too deep, no wound too deadly! True love seeks to protect, no matter what! True
love values the reputation of others above vengeance, retaliation, or judgment!
True love causes us to realize our own vulnerability to failure and this we
protect others as they fall!
What does this love look like?
Galatians 6:1-3King James Version (KJV)
1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of
meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
Proverbs 10:12King James Version (KJV)
1.) Specifically
* Person to Person Relationships, spouses, friends, siblings,
etc. *
2.) Socially
* Individual to Society, to Individuals with which we
don't have a “personal” bond. *
We see this picture in many of the judges, Israel
sinned yet God raised up judges to restore them! We see it in the likes of men such as Samson,
Gideon, David, and in women such as Debra and Esther! We also see it in Joseph as he endured all that he
did for the good of the people! -
3.) Spiritually
* God to Man and Man to God! *
Spiritually is the most important as it's correct
position will produce the first two!
- Man to God -
We see this in Moses declaration to God in Exodus
32:33 when he tells God to blot him out and save the people! We see this same scenario when Ezra cries to God
weeping and confessing for the nation! Also, when Hezekiah receives word that Assyria and
their armies are coming, he takes that letter and goes into the house of God,
lays it on the altar and cries to God for himself and his people! -
- God to Man -
THE CROSS
God look at us and no longer sees our sin but he sees
his SON!
He COVERED us! LOVE COVERED US!
Love always PROTECTS!
-The
Excellence of Love
1 If I speak
with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If
I have the gift of prophecy, and know
all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove
mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have
love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is patient, love
is kind and is not jealous; love does
not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does
not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take
into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but
rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails;
but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are
tongues, they will cease; if there
is knowledge, it will be done away. 9
For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak
like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I
did away with childish things. 12 For
now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but
then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But
now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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