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Love Always Hopes
Love Never Fails
Date: 8/30/2020 1:52:23 PM ( 4 y ) ... viewed 1013 times
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (NIV84)
"Love is patient, love is kind" is part of a teaching on spiritual gifts. The purest and highest of all God's gifts of the Spirit is the grace of divine love. All the other gifts of the Spirit that Christians may exercise lack value and meaning if they aren't motivated by love. The Bible teaches that faith, hope, and love come together in a triune and eternal formation of heavenly gifts, "but the greatest of these is love."
Spiritual gifts are appropriate for a time and a season, but love lasts forever. Let's take apart the passage, verse by verse, examining each aspect.
Love Is Patient
This kind of patient love bears with offenses and is slow to repay or punish those who offend. However, it does not imply indifference, which would ignore an offense. Patient love is often used to describe God (2 Peter 3:9).
Love Is Kind
Kindness is similar to patience but refers to how we treat others. It especially implies a love that reacts with goodness towards those who have been ill-treated. This kind of love may take the form of a gentle rebuke when careful discipline is needed.
Love Does Not Envy
This kind of love appreciates and rejoices when others are blessed with good things and does not allow jealousy and resentment to take root. This love is not displeased when others experience success.
Love Does Not Boast
The word "boast" here means "bragging without foundation." This kind of love does not exalt itself over others. It recognizes that our achievements are not based on our own abilities or worthiness.
Love Is Not Proud
This love is not overly self-confident or insubordinate to God and others. It is not characterized by a sense of self-importance or arrogance.
Love Is Not Rude
This kind of love cares about others, their customs, likes, and dislikes. It respects the feelings and concerns of others even when they are different from our own. It would never act dishonorably or disgrace another person.
Love Is Not Self-Seeking
This kind of love puts the good of others before our own good. It places God first in our lives, above our own ambitions. This love does not insist on getting its own way.
Love Is Not Easily Angered
Like the characteristic of patience, this kind of love does not rush toward anger when others do us wrong. This love does not hold a selfish concern for one's own rights.
Love Keeps No Record of Wrongs
This kind of love offers forgiveness, even when offenses are repeated many times. It is a love that doesn't keep track of every wrong thing that people do and hold it against them.
Love Does Not Delight in Evil But Rejoices With the Truth
This kind of love seeks to avoid involvement in evil and helps others steer clear of evil, too. It rejoices when loved ones live according to truth.
Love Always Protects
This kind of love will always expose the sin of others in a safe way that won't bring harm, shame, or damage, but will restore and protect.
Love Always Trusts
This love gives others the benefit of the doubt, sees the best in others, and trusts in their good intentions.
Love Always Hopes
This kind of love hopes for the best where others are concerned, knowing God is faithful to complete the work he started in us. This hope filled love encourages others to press forward in the faith.
Love Always Perseveres
This kind of love endures even through the most difficult trials.
Love Never Fails
This kind of love goes beyond the boundaries of ordinary love. It is eternal, divine, and will never cease.
Compare this passage in several popular Bible translations:
1 Corinthians 13:4–8a
(English Standard Version)
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. (ESV)
1 Corinthians 13:4–8a
(New Living Translation)
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance ... love will last forever! (NLT)
1 Corinthians 13:4–8a
(New King James Version)
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (NKJV)
1 Corinthians 13:4–8a
(King James Version)
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. (KJV)
Source
Holman New Testament Commentary,
Pratt, R. L.
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