1st Corinthians 13. We return again this morning and wonderful verses that show us how love is the more excellent way. As Paul indicated at the end of chapter 12, he is teaching in the context of course of spiritual gifts and how we can be useful to each other in the congregation and how needful, how necessary, how without which it just doesn't matter what we do or don't do. If we don't have love, then any of our actions are empty, barren, fruitless. They are worse than nothing even. Love is the more excellent way. And he teaches us this, again, this chapter 13, just a beautiful breath of fresh air in the whole letter that Paul has written to the Corinthians, but he tells us not just love in a generic sense, you know, love and love and love like the world would celebrate, you know, love and, no, this kind of love is different. This kind of love that Paul is describing is so worthy, it is so excellent. It is, in fact, the more excellent way. These verses, chapter 13, we looked last time at the first three verses. If you'd like to summarize it as the power of love, Without love, all is loss. And we looked at that last week. Today, we get to consider the perfections, just a smattering of perfections, the wonderful works of love. And we will see how love is an active service toward one another. And then, Lord willing, in future times, we'll look at the permanence of love, that love perseveres always, it endures to the end, and even the primacy of love, that love transcends all. So chapter 13 is all about love, but not just in a generic, yay, we love you, you love us, and let's just get along, but in a true, genuine, deep, wonderful sense. In fact, you could say that love is the proper basis and context for gifts to operate in the church. This is what Paul's been discussing in chapter 12. He'll return to it in chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians. And you just need love. And for him to spend, now he didn't write in chapters, of course, but for him to spend what is equivalent to a chapter in our book to this idea of love, means, suggests very strongly, that the Corinthians had an issue with love. They had an issue, a shortage, maybe a misunderstanding or misapplication of love, that something's not right. And it gets right to the heart of the issue by saying, where's the love? Where is this practice, this demonstration of your love for one another? Well, the issue is when we love, we are loving each other. We show love to each other. That means there are relationships. But the thing about relationships is, now this isn't rocket science here, thankfully, because we're all in different relationships, but relationships, I don't know if you know this, can be difficult. Now you know this, right? This hard dealing with people and for people to deal with us, they can be inconvenient when they When your friend asks for something or you know you ought to do this and so wait I have to put this down so I can go do this. Yes. Relationships can be messy because you're dealing with people and just different needs and it gets complicated. They can be painful. The loss of whatever misunderstandings can be just discouraging and just cause a lot of hurt. They can be fragile. How quickly relationships can be broken through a variety of situations. It's just, wow, we need something that is more permanent, more primary in our relating to another. Relationships can cost us things. They can cost us time or money or emotional energy. And just, wow, it's just a hard thing. And in fact, there are barriers to love. I don't think I have a list of here. I do have a list here. You're welcome. There are barriers to love. Why do we have so many issues relating with one another? Well, one reason is busyness. We're just busy people. We're doing this and doing that thing. And sometimes we get exhausted. A lot of times we get overcommitted. We just, I can't schedule you in. Sorry, maybe two weeks from next Thursday. Maybe, possibly, I'll be able to respond to your text. No, sometimes we have improper priorities with that. Or we're just lazy and we say, I'll get to that person. I know they have a need, but I'll get to him later. And we just put it off. Or there's a lack of commitment. And truly, you wonder about church membership. Church membership, in terms of our understanding, is a clarification of a commitment that you are identifying with this congregation and we as shepherds are responsible for you. and to you to some degree. And so we want to make sure that commitment is clarified in that regard with church membership. When there's a lack of commitment, even in a marriage commitment or a dating relationship, if there's not that expression of, I want you in my life kind of thing, then there are barriers to love that we just can't get there. There are narrow interests. When you try to find somebody who's exactly like you, I can only relate to people who are in my age demographic or come from whatever state or come from this experience or is the fourth child of the parents. We have a narrow interest a lot of times, or those who prefer Marvel over DC. I don't know what you want to go with that, but self-sufficiency, that we can do it by our own big selves. I don't need you. Don't need you in my life. And if you can't do it with your own self, then you are a weak person. And wait a minute, that's not very loving, is it? Just a rugged individualism. We are independent. I don't need you. You don't need me. Let's just get along, but separately. How about that? partiality that we are showing favoritism. We just have our little clique and so we hang with those people whether in the church or in the family get-togethers where you have a favorite We don't want to do that. It's a barrier to love. Perhaps we are shy, but we use that as an excuse. And we perhaps fear rejection. We say, I'm not a people person. At least I'm not your kind of people person. I'm going to go identify with these people over here, but not you. And so there's that idea. Maybe there's unresolved conflict where you just haven't dealt with things. Am I suggesting things that maybe you haven't experienced in your life? I don't know. These are barriers to love. Consumerism, what can you do for me? kind of thing. You know, I love me and I want you to do whatever it might be. Or there's just a overwhelming selfishness, self-centeredness. It's all about me. It's what I want. It's what I, you know, trips my bobber, if you know that phrase in the fishing world. And so all kind of barriers to love. And it's a people or a person-based issue. And because we're all persons, we all have these kinds of issues where just barrier after barrier after barrier. But love breaks down these barriers. Love does not allow this, well, at its root, selfishness to prosper because we are concerned about the other person. This idea of love really informs our statement of commitment as a congregation, and that is this, that Liberty Bible Church is committed to the ministry of the Word of God through authentic relationships, in which you could also say through loving selfless relationships. So all would mature in Jesus Christ to the glory of God. We are about the ministry of the Word of God. That's how God builds his people. Jesus himself prayed by them, in the truth your word is truth. How do people get matured, grown up in Christ? It's through the ministry of the Word of God. Not just from the pulpit, but through our normal day-to-day conversations in the, we don't have pews, but chairs, and in the hallways, well aisles, we don't have hallways really, or in the picnic lunch where we're engaging, talking scripture, talking God's perspective on the matters of life. We are inserting and ministering the Word of God through our daily relationships. We want people to grow and want people to glorify the Lord. Well, here in 1 Corinthians 13, it's almost as if, and this is John MacArthur in his commentary, he said, Paul is painting a portrait of love and Jesus Christ is sitting for the portrait. He lived out in perfection all of these virtues of love. This beautiful picture of love is a portrait of him. So as we look then into the text, beginning at verse four, let me read it and then we'll look at it very carefully here. Verse four says, love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, does not brag, is not puffed up, does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered. does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Quite an encompassing statement of love. Not so much a definition of love, but a demonstration of love. In fact, each of these 15 characteristics or actions of love is a verb. You think, well, what's the big deal? I have grammar, I thought. It's not even Monday. It's not even school time. We're talking about grammar. Because these are action items. It's not just a description. Like if we were to describe somebody as that person is fast, or he's wearing a red shirt, No, that's a characteristic about it, but this is an action. Love does stuff. Love is active in it. In fact, for example, you could change each of these statements so it doesn't sound so much like an adjectival use where you say, love shows patience. Love demonstrates kindness. Love does not jealously guard what is its own. You could go on and look at each of these 15 statements in that kind of way. rephrasing them perhaps to make it more more powerfully a verbal action oriented description. But here love is patient and we see how Paul and his wisdom shows how this is really so necessary because we we quickly get into the idea of just being impatient, irritable, easily kind of provoked into an action. And he starts out with this first characteristic of patience as a description, as an action rather, of love. And even these first two, patience and kindness, are often repeated, thankfully, in God's action toward us, that he is both patient and kind. And the patience of God, the kindness of God, leads us to repentance. That he is so long-suffering. In fact, right in this word patience is the idea of anger and fury and wrath. God's wrath is a long wrath. In other words, it takes a long time for God's wrath to be aroused. Thankfully, it takes quite some time for the eternal God to come to that place where he is going to judge. It's not any shortcoming in his sight. In fact, it's a mercy because if everybody who deserved God's wrath received God's wrath at the moment they deserved it, would there be anybody? Would there be Adam and Eve after the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Why didn't they die immediately? Well, they did in many ways, but not physically until many years later. But that death came into the world through the sin of Adam. And now we see God, in his kindness, does not do what everybody did right now. Wow. We can have that same attitude, being patient and even showing kindness to another. We see how love is patient. We see how the fruit of the Spirit, which Galatians 5, of course, describes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. These two, again, very closely related there in Galatians 5. So love is a patient, long-suffering long-suffering, even not so much given toward that retaliatory action. You wronged me, I'm not gonna, and it's not even you wronged me, let me wait until I can get my vengeance. I will plot, I will plan, I will get it just the right time. No, there's no consideration of vengeance. There's no consideration of you wronged me, let me get my just due. No, we are so much patiently, long-suffering, having a temper that is under control. We have the ability to subject our own rights, our own privileges to God's work in our lives, showing patience with one another. And how important that is, because especially in the Corinthian church, in any church where you have people, you have all kinds of upsets and offenses, and you said this, or you didn't say this, or you didn't come to this, or you didn't respond to that. And you remember those barriers to love? That is real stuff, but it can cause really the testing of patients one to another. So love is patient. Love is kind, or love shows considerate gentleness toward people. It does good. It is a gracious, active goodwill toward people. Benevolence might be another way, which is a goodwill toward people. It's not a standoffish thing, you know, don't touch me kind of thing. It is so much interested in getting right into people's business, not in a gossipy, busybody sense like in 1 Timothy 5, talking about young women that do all kinds of things, getting busy body and other people's stuff. But this is a willingness to get involved with people to help them. It is an idea of Christ even who said my yoke is easy or gentle. It is something that that gives a blessing to those who bear it. Matthew 11 30 uses this idea of kindness in relation to his his yoke, the relationship we have to him. We can see this word. It was actually used by, I forget which Roman historian after the first century, after the apostolic age. Instead of being called Christians, they were called Christianis, Christianis, C-H-R-E-S-T-I. And that's the Greek word kindness that we have here. So they were known for those who showed kindness to another, not just their peers in the church, but other people. So kind and giving and doing good toward other people. Love is not. Now, we had two kind of positive statements or descriptions of love. Now we have eight negatives. In other words, love does not do this. Love is not this way. Love is not, never does this. And so here we see love is not jealous. Love is not a jealous, rivalrous, competitive kind of idea. And I said, well, you shouldn't play any athletic sports anymore. We don't want to be zealous or jealous. No, you can play sports. But you've seen this, perhaps, where there are poor losers. But you know what? Sometimes there are poor winners, too, because there's just an attitude of overly competitive, overly jealous. And that's the idea, I guess, two different aspects of it. One is to say that What you have, that's what I want. I want what you have. I see what you have, whether it's a relationship, whether it's stuff, talents, success, fame, whatever it might be, and we're jealous for what you have. Another aspect, though, of jealousy, which love would never do, is I am angry. that you have, what I don't have. I don't want you to have what I don't have. And you remember the, I remember a picture book we had for our kids years ago from First Kings Chapter 3. Yeah, First Kings Chapter 3, when the wisdom of Solomon is tested by the two ladies who had children, and the one child died and the other child was lived. And you remember how that story goes? If you don't, read First Kings 3. The test of wisdom. The one woman whose child died did not want the woman whose child lived to have that child who lived. The famous saying is, cut the baby in half. Anyway, read 1 Kings chapter 3 to realize, wow, this jealousy is so powerful, so just overwhelming to this one lady who lost her child and was resenting the fact that the other woman had what she didn't have. Jesus talks about, is your eye greedy because I'm generous? You're coveting, lusting after something that, hey, I gave you the same thing I gave these other people, the other workers. Why are you being jealous or envious of these things? Jealousy is described many times in Proverbs. Proverbs 14.30, for example, says, a tranquil heart is life to the body, but jealousy is rottenness to the bones. It's right down in your business there. Well, love is not that way. Love is not jealous at all. Now, there's a positive aspect to jealousy, and we'll see this, we would see this in various passages. For example, 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2, I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. It's not negative there. I betrothed you to one husband, so I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. It goes on and describes the unfettered devotion to Christ himself. So there's a jealousy, a zeal, which is the root idea here, a zeal, a passion. But it can be so quickly adulterated by false desires and angry that you have things that I don't have. He goes on and says in verse four, love does not brag. It is not, and this is an interesting word, because it's really only used here in, well, all of scripture, but even other places. It's not a very used word. It comes from a noun that talks about somebody who is vainglorious, somebody who is just a braggart, you know, enough about you, let's talk about me kind of a person. I want you to know how good I am, how wonderful I am, how excellent I am, how smart I am. That is a bragging, a braggadocious person, somebody who is haughty, we might call him him or her, because of a self-confidence. Now self-confidence is good, but when you just get so self-confident, you get cocky, that's just unseemly. It is not at all appropriate to God's demonstration of ourselves, who we are toward one another. It is even an insolent bragging as something that there's no innocence about it. It's just out there. Love would never consider doing that. Can you imagine our Lord Jesus demanding this obeisance, this humbling of other people before Him? Now there's gonna be a time, of course, every knee will bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But it is not something that is undeserved in his regard, right? He is Christ the Lord. He's not one who has to force it on other people. It is something that either you do or you don't, it's your problem. Because I deserve all the praise, all the worthiness, all the worship. If we were to approach each other that way in the church, you know, the door opens for us, we enter, we immediately have the hallelujah chorus played for us as we enter. And now we just know love is not a braggadocious, bragging excessively, just unruly show-off, seeking prestige. Wow. Goes on, love is not puffed up. One of Paul's favorite words in relation to the Corinthian church. In fact, seven times this word is used in New Testament. Six of those are right here in 1st Corinthians. Because it's just, they are puffed up. Self-inflated people. The hot air is so strong with them. They are proud. They are conceited. They think that they have all the answers. They know all the questions even to the answers that go with the answers. And no, love is incompatible and a self-focused, self-aggrandizing aspect. Pride is really at the root of this. Again, Proverbs that says, When arrogance comes, this is Proverbs 11 verse two, when arrogance comes, then comes disgrace. But with the meek is wisdom. There is a meekness, not a timidness, not a embarrassment, not a weakness, but a strength that doesn't need the praise of other people. In fact, Jesus, our Lord said, if you want the praise of men, oh, that's easy to get. you wanna get the praise of men, you just do what the world wants you to do, and they'll praise you just the same. If you want the praise of God, though, that's a different business. And if you get the praise of God, or excuse me, get the praise of men, you forfeited the praise of God, because you are going right part and parcel with the world. You are walking in arrogance, you're walking in pride, you're walking in a disobedience to the Lord in that regard, being puffed up in this way. We are looking not toward the the puffed-up-ness where we are presenting ourselves as bigger than we truly are, we are meek, we are confident in the Lord and his work in our lives, and we want to be useful, we want to show love and grace toward other people, but we don't do it so we can get a pat on the back. We do it so that God himself can be honored and glorified. He goes on and says, love does not act unbecomingly. Love does not act unbecomingly. And this idea we saw back in chapter 7, and we saw it back in chapter 11, kind of indicated, and we'll see it again in chapter 14, this idea of what is unseemly, that which is even not fit for polite company, that is a careless, maybe even overbearing, you know, love does not act unbecomingly, that person may not recognize that they are brutish, they are acting in a way that just is really heavy handed, it's really ill-mannered, we would look at that and say, boy, you know, get a clue, man. What are you doing? That is borderline crude and even obscene. The way that this unloving action, it's not loving at all, but for those who would act in such a way that, you know, badly done, in the words of Mr. Knightley, we want to make sure that we are doing things that are seemingly appropriate, worshiping God, showing his kindness toward other people. God would never never act with indiscretion. God would never do that which is graceless. He's full of grace. He's full of love. Our Lord Jesus Christ, again, this is a portrait of him. How can we see him do these wonderful works not unbecomingly? We'll see it later in Chapter 14, verse 40, all things must be done properly. There's our word, but then the positive sense, properly and in an orderly manner. We want to make sure that we are not, well, we're very careful to. Be polite. We are gracious toward one another. We are presentable. We saw this back in chapter 12. The presentable members has this idea. And so we want to show our love in a way that is beautiful. There's nothing negative about it. There's no innuendo with it. There's no suggestion of impropriety. It's above board in every respect. Love does not seek its own. Love does not seek its own. It is not on the search for, how can I serve myself? I have my own interests. I have my own needs. I'm going to do what I need to do. Regardless of other people, I'm going to maybe even use people for my own purposes, my own desires, my own defenses. I will do that which is in my own advantage or to my own advantage. I will manipulate conversations, manipulate people, so that one way or another, I'll get them to do what I want or give me what I want. That's not loving. That is not loving at all. That is not the demonstration that Christ has given to us. In fact, if you were to read the beginning of chapter 15 of Romans, Paul's letter to Romans, he says in the context of conscientious matters of days and foods and different things. He says, now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. And again, this key idea. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, not for our purposes, for his good, to his building up. For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. And then it goes on and talks about the glory of Christ, who is that one who shows us this seeking what is the advantage of us, not for his own self. Submitting his own desires, his own life even, to the cross so that he would purchase salvation for his people. Love is not easily provoked. It is not something that is, again, this irritable or maybe kind of a touchy person, you know, kind of a moody person where you don't know what kind of mood that person's in today. Just be careful. You go first. You see how things are over there before we get in there. People that are easily exasperated, just you touch them this way and they're just easily provoked. They are greatly upset, losing your temper, right? You refine that in scripture. It's this idea, just easily provoked, just somebody who is given Truly, this word comes into English, it is transliterated in English as a paroxysm. Paroxysm, which is a sudden violent emotion or action, according to Merriam-Webster. And so this idea where you just don't know what might set this person off or not set them off, love does not do that. Love is For example, going along with the patience idea at the very beginning, this idea of not easily provoked has the idea of shock absorbers in the road of life, if you don't mind, where you are able to absorb the ups and downs, the different imperfections of the road surfaces. They're still there, but you don't feel it. And you can ride over almost smooth as glass because of your patience, because of your self-control, not easily provoked over these things. Consider that even in relation to riding a bike. Maybe you have one of those fancy bikes, which I am not jealous for at all. But if you were to ride one of those that have the shock absorber, but if you don't have one of those where you are connected to the wheels and whatever the wheels are doing, that's what you're doing. Wow, can you imagine how horrific that would be? That's why you need strong leg muscles to be able to be the shock absorber. Okay, I'm getting way off into the metaphor. But you have the idea that love is not provoked. It is not something that is just ready almost at a moment's notice to erupt or lash out at people. No, love would not do that. Love is such a patient and kind. Well, everything we've said thus far, it is not provoked. Here in verse five, it says at the end, does not take into account a wrong suffered, which is a long way to translate a few words, but he has the idea of here not taking into account the idea can, this word can have the idea of your recording kind of in a register or a ledger where okay, you know, point for you in negative you lost in that regard. But I'm going to write that down because you offended me. And so I'm going to record that. And at the end of the week or end of the day or in the month, whatever, I'm going to pay you back for all those offenses that I have recorded all this while. Love doesn't do that. Love does not take into account. It does not reckon. It is not, you know, a debit system where you wronged me. You didn't do this for me. And so I'm going to not do this for you. And it's a transactional relationship. What kind of a blessing is that? It's not. It's not loving at all. Another idea of this word reckon or take into account is just the preoccupation that we have of thinking about wrongs that have been done to us, that we are even identified or defined by things that have happened to us. We're a victim of that, or we're one who has suffered this, or we're of this or that. We don't think about it. Now we can take into consideration, it does affect us, but influence us, but it doesn't have to be a preoccupying, controlling mindset where that just shapes the rest of our life. No. Situations, positive and negative, can influence, but they cannot define our future or our past. We are God's people. and we can walk forward in faith and in dignity. We don't have to be always thinking and meditating, well this happened to me, therefore I am that. No, don't be limited by that. Don't think of the limitation of what other people have done to you. Rise up beyond that. So not even considering it, not meditating upon it, not reflecting. Let me think back to the time where I was. No, move forward. Think about what is positive and what is good and glorious. God's good action in the evil things that happen to us. I mean, these are bad things. undermining any of the impact of the evil that is intended. This idea of wrong is that which is a moral wrong. It is that which is evil. It's just filthy. It's just foul things that have happened to us. But we should not take into account those things. It overlooks offenses. In fact, there are two aspects of how love does that. One is that it just overlooks. It doesn't think about it. It doesn't respond to it. It doesn't record it down a ledger. But then there's another way that love overlooks an offense, and that is by confronting that sin. James 5 discusses that idea, where if someone is caught in sin, then love will go and show him his fault. Love will go and admonish that person. That is another aspect of love. covering sin. Psalm 32, one of the Psalms of David, said, how blessed is that man whose sins are forgiven, whose transgressions are not recorded. To his account, I may have the ideas reversed there. But Psalm 32, beginning in those first two or three verses, speak about that wonderful blessing that our sins are not recorded against us. They are recorded against Christ. That's why we talk about an imputed righteousness, a gift righteousness. We didn't deserve it. But Christ's righteousness was credited to our account. And our unrighteousness was credited or debited to his account. And he became sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God in him. That's the wonderful love transaction in a positive way, the change of status before God. Well, let me put it this way, too. Because God does take a record of wrongs. Psalm 120, no, Psalm 130 says that if you, Lord, kept a record of sins, oh Lord, who could stand? Nobody. God did, and he does. Let me just tell you that. God does keep a record of wrongs against himself because, again, he's God. We're not God, so we should not do that, but God does. He is a just and holy God. Love does not take into account, even God in his love said, I'm going to take the sin that you deserve, put it on my beloved son. He's going to die for your sin so you can be justified and have a relationship with me. Wow, what a gift. Well, love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, verse 6 says, but rejoices in truth. This is the last of the does not ideas and then transition into the final five positive statements about love. And this relationship between unrighteousness and truth is something that suggests we're not given into not rejoicing, not celebrating, not sharing in the the improprieties of evil people, the unrighteousness, the unjust actions of people. We would not rejoice and say, you know, I am so glad that that sinner over there was found out, discovered, and now he's got, you know, he's got judgment coming on him. We rejoice in that kind of judgment. No, love doesn't do that. Now, There's an aspect of it, even we saw in Revelation 18 and 19, where we do rejoice in God's righteous action, but for the sake of that person, we mourn for the sin that brought that person, and the discovery of their sin just is horrific to us. And we think, that is a person made in the image of God. We do not rejoice in that, what they're doing. even to consider we don't rejoice and find great delight in watching or listening to or singing about things that are just wicked, things that are just evil. And so we would not, well we'd be very careful in kind of the media that we enjoy or consume. We don't rejoice, celebrate in any regard that's evil, that which detracts from God, that which blasphemes his character. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. But this idea of rejoicing with, the celebratory partnership even, identifying with that which is true and what is right and what is real and what is genuine and good, That's what we celebrate. That's what we are so animated about. Love ought to rejoice in the truth, and it does by God's grace. We see that we, in our own lives, if we have this rejoicing with the truth, that we're not embarrassed or ashamed or concerned. You know, I might be found out because I'm doing this, you know, kind of on the down low or the low down, whatever that idea is. We're not lacking integrity, and so we're rejoicing with the truth. We want the truth to be out there. We don't want to have any shadows or suggestions or suspicions about us. We want the truth to be on display. That's what love does. It does not rejoice in that which is hidden or dark or contrary to God's action or holiness. It rejoices in that which is real and good and holy. He ends this list And by the way, this isn't a complete list, just as he gave the list of spiritual gifts. They're not exhaustive. This is just a one-portrait idea, one example of what does love do? What is love characterized by in his action? And he could go on to describe other things, but he gives us this, and he ends it with this really a majestic statement with the phrase, all things, as he or as he dictated it, at the beginning of the phrase, so all things love bears, all things love believes, all things love hopes, all things love endures. And so each of these items, bears, believes, hopes, endures, has this great, the priority of love, the aspect of love is that which is able to endure everything all the time. In fact, there's no limit to love. You think, well, isn't there, Even in Matthew 18, Peter asked the question about forgiveness. How many times should I forgive my brother? Because I'm going to keep track. Wait a minute. Love doesn't keep a record of wrongs suffered. But OK, if you want to know, 70 times 7. OK, so when I get to 491, right, I can know. And he goes, and wonderful parable, Matthew 18. 21, I think, to 35, just tremendous passage in the servants that owed the stuff to the king, and then the servant that owed the stuff to the other guy, and how that, and if you don't forgive others, verse 35 says, if you don't forgive others, God doesn't forgive you. If you don't have that attitude of forgiving, bearing with the people, there's no limit to love, in other words. Always doing what honors the Lord. This word bears is an interesting word. It's similar to what we have at the end of the verse, endures. But this idea of bearing, the word is used to describe a roof, like a roof on a building, or a shelter, or even the roof of the ark, the covering over the ark, Noah's Ark, is described in that way. So it has the idea, and I think the NIV has it translated, protects. Love always protects. It's that idea of putting a shelter, of covering over that person, and we want to be able to help that person, support them from below, but also cover them from above, and just always giving of ourselves for the benefit of that person. Because again, naturally, in our own flesh, we're totally selfish, self-centered, acting for our own self-interest. Love doesn't do that. And love doesn't even question motives. You know, you think, well, you only want that for this reason. How do you know that? When you judge people's motives, you can't do that. Think about what is best. Think the best of other people. Give them the benefit of the doubt kind of thing. Now, if they Luke 17, talk about the one who sinned against the person. If your brother comes and sins against you, you rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. Okay, what about if he comes the next time, the same day? Do the same thing, rebuke him if he repents, forgive him, and just keep on doing that. And the upshot of that is we're only doing that which is right. We're servants of God. We serve him. So we bear all things. We believe all things. Not that we're gullible, not that we're naive, but that we are those who have faith in the Lord, that he is active, he is sovereign over things. We can trust him even if we can't trust each other, which we ought to be able to trust one another. I'm not saying we shouldn't, but we always trust God who is active in these things. And when things go sideways, God is in control. Somehow He's going to use this for His glory. Somehow He's going to use this for the salvation of people. Somehow He's going to use it in ways that we cannot understand, but we believe God. We have faith in His character. We have faith in His past action. Therefore we can go forward with great confidence. By the way, this is so different to Job's friends who, I mean, they had an understanding of God, but it was a wrong understanding, and they were ready to believe the worst about Job. They accused him of all manner of things, and he says, I didn't do any of those things of which you're talking. It's all of a mistake, and you've misunderstood God and all this. Love hopes all things, which is, you wonder about faith and hope. Aren't they the same thing? Well, in some respects they are, but faith has an idea of looking back and say, because of this, I can look forward and say, this is the trajectory of the character and the actions of this person and certainly of God. Hope is more future-focused in some respect in regards looking back, but hope based on the fulfillment, the future fulfillment. Faith is present, maybe tense. You can understand it, whereas hope is something more optimistic, anticipation of a future fulfillment if you want the full. description of that. Love bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. It is able to undergo a great stress, a great test of love. It is able to endure that. It's able to bear up underneath it. In fact, that's really what this word means, to remain under something. I can handle it. I can do this. And it's not to, again, to pat ourselves. God gives us that ability to love, supernatural love. In fact, he describes it this way. that we have been called to freedom. This is Galatians 5 13. We have been called to freedom, brothers, but don't use that freedom as an opportunity to serve yourself, opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Give yourself for other people. And you can endure all kinds of things. You can endure all kind of broken relationships. You can do all these kinds of things when we have this aspect of love, of enduring God's, the things that God allows and even permits and puts into our lives. because He is good, because He is a sanctifying God. He wants us to cast all of our cares upon Him, and we recognize that we need His love to demonstrate that in this age. Now, the question comes, and this is how Jesus summarizes it, the whole Law and the Prophets is summarized in this way, and He says it here in Matthew 7 verse 12, in all things, whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them. For this is the law and the prophets." In other words, we're thinking, you know, I show love toward other people. I do this. I'm really a magnanim. I'm really a great person. All right. Don't you agree? No. How about if you want people to treat you the way that you prefer, then how easy are you making it for people to love you? How irritable, irritating are you? How overbearing, how full of yourself are you toward other people? In other words, make it easy on your husband, on your wife, on your children, on your co-workers, and your church member, fellow people. It would be such an easy thing. We can easily love Jesus. Oh, tremendous love Jesus. How about if we love each other as Jesus deserves, that we don't put offenses before the people. We're quick to resolve issues. We're quick to humble ourselves. We're quick to serve. If we want that love to be shown to us, then we show that to other people, and we consider, boy, I know you're called to be patient with me. I wish I wouldn't be such a bear, such a troublesome person to you. Help me to change, Lord, and you want to do that for God's glory. This is the fulfillment of what God expects of his people, that we would do to others as we'd have them do unto you and to show that kind of love that Christ has shown to us. Our Father in heaven, we're so grateful for the truth of your word, that love which is so powerful, so amazing that we need to show to one another and we can certainly receive from the Lord. We're thankful for the picture, this portrait of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that his beautiful perfections would be more perfected in our own lives in patience and kindness and all these other things. Please help us to walk in humility. Help us to walk with not a self-centered attitude but a selfless sacrificial service toward one another. Please help us to move beyond just statements or parodies even of love, but we pray that we would love genuinely, have these real authentic relationships showing the grace, the kindness, the benevolence toward us. Help us to make it easy for others to love and to serve. We pray that you'd humble us, help us to be useful to one another, ultimately glorifying and advancing your kingdom here on earth until Christ comes, which we pray would be very soon. I pray in His name. Amen.