Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; (5) does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; (6) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; (7) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (8) Love never fails. . .(1 Corinthians 13: 4-8).
We’ve been examining the characteristics of Agape love in the last few issues of Victorious Living. In my last article, I discussed the truth that love does not rejoice at iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Love does not ignore problems, but kindly confronts them with truth. A person who really loves you will be honest with you if you’re involved in something that will be a detriment to your life in some way.
The next characteristic of love from 1 Corinthians 13: 7 is that love bears all things. The word bear is the Greek word stege which simply means “a roof or a covering.†In this verse, it means to cover by silence the offenses of others! In fact, the Berkeley translation of the New Testament of this phrase reads, “Love covers all things in silence.â€
Proverbs 10:12 tells us that hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins. And this principle is mentioned again in 1 Peter 4:8: “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.†A believer who walks in love will not gossip about others’ problems!
Mrs. C Nuzum, author of the book The Life of Faith1, has this to say about love covering with silence:
“Love covers sins, even when there is a multitude of them. Love not only hides the evil in others, but refuses even to speak of it. Then, if we tell of the evil someone has done, criticize, judge, condemn, or murmur against anyone, no matter who he is or what he has done, we are proving that we have not love, because love covers in silence.â€
Resist the tendency to talk about others and their problems. A mature believer who walks in agape has learned to value others and will not be used to disseminate negative information! We are to keep our thoughts and our words on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy!
Another attribute of agape love in 1 Corinthians 13:7 is that agape believes all things. The Amplified Bible of this verse reads:
“Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].â€
Agape love will lead you to believe in people, even when they don’t believe in themselves. When I began my walk with Jesus over 30 years ago, the Lord showed me a tendency I had to look for faults in others. I did this because of my own insecurities. Whatever you believe about yourself will directly affect how you treat others. So I had the tendency to look for something in another person that would bring them down to my size.
While attending a worship service in my church one Sunday morning as an 18 year old, I began to look for faults in the ushers as they took up the offering. As I was searching for some physical defect or some flaw in their clothing, the Holy Spirit challenged me by reminding me that love believes the best of every person. He challenged me to repent of looking for flaws in others and instead to look for the best in them. That one event changed my life, and over the years I can now say that I have the habit of overlooking the flaws and of seeing the best in others. This one attitude can change the way you relate to everyone around you.
Let me also mention that we should be careful with the use of sarcasm in our speech. This word sarcasm actually comes from a Latin word and means to cut the flesh! Resist the tendency to cut down and defame others even in a joking way. Love always builds and encourages.
Agape love also hopes all things. This characteristic is similar to believing the best in someone but goes a step further. Love expects improvement as time goes by. Hope always deals with the future, and when we hope all things, we are saying that we believe others are changing for the better! The Amplified Bible of this phrase reads “its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances.†Agape believes in the God who can change people!
Agape endures all things. The Greek word for endure here in 1 Corinthians 13:7 is the word hupomeno. This Greek word comes from hupo which means “under†and meno which means “to remain.†Together it is the picture of a person who remains steady in a difficult place. When the going gets tough, this person continues to stand and continues to love.
In trying and difficult relationships, the person who loves with agape becomes a real strength to those who, through their own hurt, are hurtful to others. Agape will allow you to remain through thick and thin and to put up with the biting, hurtful, stinging things that others do to you. Agape love maintains faith that God is working behind the scenes to bring about change in a person who is frankly hard to live with! Endurance will enable you to be kind to the unkind and tender to the harsh.
Here’s another quote that I thought was so good concerning endurance from the book The Life of Faith:
“To endure is to go through a thing just as though it had not occurred - to be not in the least affected by it. How many of us can and do go through all trying, hurtful, evil things that are on every side as sweetly, calmly, silently, lovingly, and uncomplainingly as if they were all just as if we would like them to be. That is to endure.â€2
The last characteristic of love is that love never fails! 1 John 4:16 tells us that we are to believe the love that God has for us. It is possible to come to the place in life where you believe that love is the best way to live. It is better than selfishness, strife, bitterness, resentment, grudges, anger, and animosity. The love way is the most successful way to live.
I encourage you to go over these lessons on love again and again. The five lessons are available on our website at www.vfgarner.com. Keep your mind renewed with God’s word about agape and its characteristics.
In closing, I want to share with you a compilation of different translations of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 that give a great synopsis of Agape. I encourage you to read it every day!
I CORINTHIANS 13:4 - 7
“Let me describe love. It is slow to lose patience; love stays in difficult relationships with kindness, and it always looks for ways to be constructive. There is no envy in love. It is not possessive and never boils over with jealousy. Love makes no parade of itself; it never boasts, nor does it puff up with pride.
“Love is never arrogant and never puts itself on display, because it is neither anxious to impress, nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love never gets irritated and is never resentful.â€
“Love holds no grudges, and it keeps no record of evil done to it. Love refuses to be provoked and never harbors evil thoughts.â€
“Love is not rude or grasping or overly sensitive, nor does love search for imperfections and faults in others. Love does not compile statistics of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love celebrates what is real and not what is perverse or incomplete.â€
“Love never does the graceless thing. Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. Love never insists on its own rights, never irritably loses its temper, and never nurses its wrath to keep it warm. Love is not touchy.â€
“Love can stand any kind of treatment because there are no limits to its endurance, no end to its trust. Love bears up under anything; it perseveres in all circumstances. Love’s first instinct is to believe in people. If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best in him, and always stand your ground in defending him. Love never regards anyone or anything as hopeless. Love keeps up hope in everything. Love’s hope never fades.â€
“Love keeps on keeping on! It trusts in God in every situation and expects God to act in all circumstances. Love goes on forever. Nothing can destroy love. Nothing can happen that can break love’s spirit. In fact, it is the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.â€
__________________________________________________________
Resources & Endnotes
http://www.victorychurch.nu/articles/the_love_walk_characteristics_of_love/
We’ve been examining the characteristics of Agape love in the last few issues of Victorious Living. In my last article, I discussed the truth that love does not rejoice at iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Love does not ignore problems, but kindly confronts them with truth. A person who really loves you will be honest with you if you’re involved in something that will be a detriment to your life in some way.
The next characteristic of love from 1 Corinthians 13: 7 is that love bears all things. The word bear is the Greek word stege which simply means “a roof or a covering.†In this verse, it means to cover by silence the offenses of others! In fact, the Berkeley translation of the New Testament of this phrase reads, “Love covers all things in silence.â€
Proverbs 10:12 tells us that hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins. And this principle is mentioned again in 1 Peter 4:8: “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.†A believer who walks in love will not gossip about others’ problems!
Mrs. C Nuzum, author of the book The Life of Faith1, has this to say about love covering with silence:
“Love covers sins, even when there is a multitude of them. Love not only hides the evil in others, but refuses even to speak of it. Then, if we tell of the evil someone has done, criticize, judge, condemn, or murmur against anyone, no matter who he is or what he has done, we are proving that we have not love, because love covers in silence.â€
Resist the tendency to talk about others and their problems. A mature believer who walks in agape has learned to value others and will not be used to disseminate negative information! We are to keep our thoughts and our words on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy!
Another attribute of agape love in 1 Corinthians 13:7 is that agape believes all things. The Amplified Bible of this verse reads:
“Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].â€
Agape love will lead you to believe in people, even when they don’t believe in themselves. When I began my walk with Jesus over 30 years ago, the Lord showed me a tendency I had to look for faults in others. I did this because of my own insecurities. Whatever you believe about yourself will directly affect how you treat others. So I had the tendency to look for something in another person that would bring them down to my size.
While attending a worship service in my church one Sunday morning as an 18 year old, I began to look for faults in the ushers as they took up the offering. As I was searching for some physical defect or some flaw in their clothing, the Holy Spirit challenged me by reminding me that love believes the best of every person. He challenged me to repent of looking for flaws in others and instead to look for the best in them. That one event changed my life, and over the years I can now say that I have the habit of overlooking the flaws and of seeing the best in others. This one attitude can change the way you relate to everyone around you.
Let me also mention that we should be careful with the use of sarcasm in our speech. This word sarcasm actually comes from a Latin word and means to cut the flesh! Resist the tendency to cut down and defame others even in a joking way. Love always builds and encourages.
Agape love also hopes all things. This characteristic is similar to believing the best in someone but goes a step further. Love expects improvement as time goes by. Hope always deals with the future, and when we hope all things, we are saying that we believe others are changing for the better! The Amplified Bible of this phrase reads “its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances.†Agape believes in the God who can change people!
Agape endures all things. The Greek word for endure here in 1 Corinthians 13:7 is the word hupomeno. This Greek word comes from hupo which means “under†and meno which means “to remain.†Together it is the picture of a person who remains steady in a difficult place. When the going gets tough, this person continues to stand and continues to love.
In trying and difficult relationships, the person who loves with agape becomes a real strength to those who, through their own hurt, are hurtful to others. Agape will allow you to remain through thick and thin and to put up with the biting, hurtful, stinging things that others do to you. Agape love maintains faith that God is working behind the scenes to bring about change in a person who is frankly hard to live with! Endurance will enable you to be kind to the unkind and tender to the harsh.
Here’s another quote that I thought was so good concerning endurance from the book The Life of Faith:
“To endure is to go through a thing just as though it had not occurred - to be not in the least affected by it. How many of us can and do go through all trying, hurtful, evil things that are on every side as sweetly, calmly, silently, lovingly, and uncomplainingly as if they were all just as if we would like them to be. That is to endure.â€2
The last characteristic of love is that love never fails! 1 John 4:16 tells us that we are to believe the love that God has for us. It is possible to come to the place in life where you believe that love is the best way to live. It is better than selfishness, strife, bitterness, resentment, grudges, anger, and animosity. The love way is the most successful way to live.
I encourage you to go over these lessons on love again and again. The five lessons are available on our website at www.vfgarner.com. Keep your mind renewed with God’s word about agape and its characteristics.
In closing, I want to share with you a compilation of different translations of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 that give a great synopsis of Agape. I encourage you to read it every day!
I CORINTHIANS 13:4 - 7
“Let me describe love. It is slow to lose patience; love stays in difficult relationships with kindness, and it always looks for ways to be constructive. There is no envy in love. It is not possessive and never boils over with jealousy. Love makes no parade of itself; it never boasts, nor does it puff up with pride.
“Love is never arrogant and never puts itself on display, because it is neither anxious to impress, nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love never gets irritated and is never resentful.â€
“Love holds no grudges, and it keeps no record of evil done to it. Love refuses to be provoked and never harbors evil thoughts.â€
“Love is not rude or grasping or overly sensitive, nor does love search for imperfections and faults in others. Love does not compile statistics of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love celebrates what is real and not what is perverse or incomplete.â€
“Love never does the graceless thing. Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. Love never insists on its own rights, never irritably loses its temper, and never nurses its wrath to keep it warm. Love is not touchy.â€
“Love can stand any kind of treatment because there are no limits to its endurance, no end to its trust. Love bears up under anything; it perseveres in all circumstances. Love’s first instinct is to believe in people. If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best in him, and always stand your ground in defending him. Love never regards anyone or anything as hopeless. Love keeps up hope in everything. Love’s hope never fades.â€
“Love keeps on keeping on! It trusts in God in every situation and expects God to act in all circumstances. Love goes on forever. Nothing can destroy love. Nothing can happen that can break love’s spirit. In fact, it is the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.â€
__________________________________________________________
Resources & Endnotes
- Mrs. C. Nuzum, The Life of Faith (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1928, 1956), p. 84 Mrs. C. Nuzum, The Life of Faith (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1928, 1956), p. 85-86
http://www.victorychurch.nu/articles/the_love_walk_characteristics_of_love/
