Returning God's Holy Word to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We return to our series on this beautiful chapter on love. The text this afternoon is verse 7. We first read the chapter in its entirety. 1 Corinthians 13. Remember how The previous chapter ends. Yet show I unto you a more excellent way. And that's the way of love. Chapter 13. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, And though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 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. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now, we see through a glass, darkly. But then, face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity. These three, but the greatest of these is charity. So far the reading of God's holy and infallible word. The text is verse 7. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, by this time you know how 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is functioning in the letter of 1 Corinthians as a whole. You know how it ought to be understood and read. The church at Corinth was a church overflowing with spiritual gifts. And yet it was a church that was lacking the most essential gift of all, love. And in this chapter, Paul is rebuking the Corinthians and exhorting them to pursue after love. Yes, you have many excellent gifts, many things you can boast of, but love is the more excellent way. So this chapter should not be read as so much a lofty ideal of what is really out of our reach, simply a goal that we have before us. No, this is something intensely practical and down to earth. This is instruction on what the Christian must pursue. In fact, what we have in this chapter is basic to the Christian life. If you don't have love, If your life in the midst of God's people is not characterized by these perfections, then you have nothing. And you are nothing. And anything you do profits you nothing if you don't have love. Your whole life is vain if love is absent in what you do. In verses four through seven, Paul has been using action words to describe what love is. He's emphasizing that love is not just something you say, love is not just a feeling you have, love is something you do. Love behaves a certain way. So far we've seen that love is patient and love is kind. Love, remember, makes itself useful for others. That's what the word kind is emphasizing. So far we've seen that love does not envy what others have, neither does love try to make others envy what it has. It does not brag about what it has, and love is not arrogant or conceited. So far we've seen that love is not rude, but love is courteous. Love cares about the sensitivities of others and the feelings of others, and doesn't want to unnecessarily offend. Love is not self-seeking, but love seeks to profit others. So far we've seen that love is not easily provoked. Love is not irritable. Love does not hold grudges against others, but instead love gladly and freely forgives. And so far we've seen that love does not rejoice in sin, love does not harbor evil desires for others and rejoice when others sin, but instead love rejoices in the truth. Love is holy. This afternoon with verse 7 we come to the last four qualities of love, the last four perfections of love. And with these last four qualities, we come to the climax, we come to Paul's crescendo, or the crescendo of Paul's explanation of love. It is as if Paul could go on talking all day about the beauties and the perfections of love, and he feels he needs to somehow come to the end of it. He needs to finish describing the beauties of love, and so he wants to emphasize the beauty of love, and to sum everything up, he starts making these sweeping general assertions about love. Love bears all things. Love believes all things. Love hopes all things. Love endures all things. And in the original, the emphasis is on those words, all things. Paul says, all things! Love bears. All things love believes. All things love hopes. All things love endures. It's a repetition that's very powerful and very climactic and Paul is going to cap it off at the beginning of verse 8 by saying, love never fails. What Paul is emphasizing here in verse 7 is the strength of love. We've seen the temper of love. We've seen the joy of love. We've seen other things about love. This afternoon we look at the strength of love. The optimism of love, in a sense. Love hopes all things and believes all things. But we see in that optimism the strength of love. That's the theme we have as we consider these last four perfections this afternoon. The Perfections of Love, Part 6, The Strength of Love. First, we look at how love bears all things. Second, how love believes all things. Third, how love hopes all things. And finally, how love endures all things. Love bears all things. The word that Paul uses for bears is a very beautiful word. It has especially two shades of meaning to it. It's a word that can be used different ways. It has especially two shades of meaning to it. First, the root meaning, the literal meaning of the word is this, to cover. To cover with silence, or to keep hidden, to conceal, even to suppress. And when we look at it from this point of view, the meaning is this, love out of regard and respect and concern for another person's well-being, love will do everything it can to cover up and keep things hidden and conceal things for that person. Especially thinking of sin. Genuine love is reluctant to expose the sins of another person. Now that doesn't mean that love puts up with sin in a wrong way. This does not mean that love tolerates sin or excuses or ignores sin and doesn't speak out about sin. If you see a crime being committed, you need to speak up about it and expose it. Love does not wink at sin. But the idea is, out of love for a person and respect, love does not broadcast their sin from the rooftops. Love does not gossip about their sin, but love keeps secret those things that would hurt others and their reputation. whether it be a private sin in a person's life, or whether it be even a sin that needs to be brought to the attention of the elders of the church, and even a sin that needs to be dealt with by the congregation. The attitude of love is this, let's keep this as confidential as we can. We care about each other and each other's reputation. Let's rebuke, let's admonish, let's warn, and let's discipline, but also let's prevent the hurt and injury of a person as much as possible, even when that person has fallen into sin. That's the first idea of this word, love covers all things, and it's even translated that way in some translations. Now that's not what we're usually inclined to do, is it? When we hear about sin, our old man of sin would like to grab these things and run away with them. It gives us a sense of self-righteousness to be able to talk about the sins of others. Love doesn't do that. Love covers over things in silence. For one example, even you children will know this story. Think of how Noah's children behaved when Noah became drunk with wine in his tent and he was naked. Remember Ham? He saw his father's nakedness and he laughed and he told his brothers. He did not cover his father's sin. In contrast, remember what Shem and Japheth did. They took a blanket and they walked into their father's tent backwards to cover his nakedness. That's what love does. Love covers all things. Well, building off of that first idea, love covers, love conceals, love keeps hidden. The word that Paul uses goes even further than that. And the idea becomes this. This is the second shade of meaning. Love will cover up a person's sin, not just to the point where love refuses to retaliate and hurt a person who sinned against him, but love will even go this far. Love will get behind the sin and underneath the sin itself and carry the sin itself. Meaning, love will bear up under the consequences of another person's sin, under the hardships of life that result because of sin, and it will carry, it will bear those burdens and consequences that another person has inflicted upon it, and where it can, love will even bear the shame that really should fall upon another person. You are sinning against me. And not only do I cover up your sins so that I don't spread the news and gossip about it, but I will even silently suffer the consequences of your sin. I will endure through the hurt and the pain your sin causes me in order to help you and protect your name and care for you and love you. That's what love does. That's where the word bears is used in the text. That's the shade of meaning it has. Love bears all things. That's how much love will cover all things, even to the point where love itself bears the consequences of the sins of others on its own shoulders so that it can protect them from the consequences even of their own sin. And then from that idea, the word doesn't have to be limited to the sins that others commit. It can refer to the idea of bearing things of a more general nature. Maybe someone is in trouble, in danger. Maybe because of their sin, or maybe simply because of other reasons. Maybe they are sick. Maybe they've gone through an accident. Maybe their house burns down. Love bears all the burdens that are now placed upon him in order to help this individual out. Love bears all loss, all trouble, all hardship that come as a result of trying to help others. When other people are struggling, love lifts them up and love carries them whatever it costs love to do that. Love bears all things. So the main thing Paul has in mind is this. Love suffers patiently all the troubles and hardships that come from dealing with other people. Including and perhaps especially people who have sinned against us or tried to hurt us. For the sake of Jesus Christ. For the sake of loving that person, love is willing and able to bear all things. Love is willing to bear the reproaches of another. Love is willing to be misunderstood and be made a reproach by people who don't know what's going on. They don't know the story behind the story. Love is willing to bear being misunderstood for the sake of another person's protection and well-being. Here we can remember the definition of love that we started out with at the very beginning of the series. Love attaches itself to another person. And then love sacrifices itself for the profit and well-being of that person. Love attaches itself to another and then gives itself for the profit and well-being of that other person. This is what love does. And I think we can think of many examples. What do parents do? You see it all the time. Parents and their relationship with their children. Parents bear all things. Don't you parents? Parents bear all kinds of things. While parents do not ignore the sins of their children, and they address them with their children, they do cover over them. Parents don't talk to each other on the bleachers with other parents about just how sinful their teenage boy or their teenage girl is behaving. They don't do that. They want to protect their child's reputation and name. They would even be willing to endure embarrassment and shame if it means sparing their child that embarrassment and shame. Parents protect their children. And parents bear being mistreated by their children. Sometimes children grossly take for granted the work that parents do for them. And that can be true of teenagers, even adult children. But for a simpler example, think of toddlers. Toddlers aren't even aware of everything that the parents are doing for them. They don't say thank you to their parents for everything that they're doing, and yet the parents gladly bear it. They bear it day in and day out. And why do they do it? Because they love their children. And Paul says that's how you need to love each other in the church at Corinth. Love each other like family. This is what love looks like. Children have to do the same thing, don't they? What does the Heidelberg Catechism say? Children, with regard to their parents, need to patiently bear with their weaknesses and infirmities. They need to bear these things. And children do that because they love their parents. Again, this does not mean that we wink at sin. We minimize it or ignore it. This is not to say that if we need to, we expose the sins of those around us, even in order to find protection for ourselves, and in order to love that person. But I think we understand, where we see weaknesses in one another, where we have to give ourselves to help one another, where we need to sacrifice for one another, we gladly bear it, because this is how love behaves. Children don't talk to their friends about the sins or the embarrassments of their parents. Children don't do that. Because they love their parents. This is what husbands and wives do in their relationship with each other. Husbands cover over the faults and the weaknesses of their wives. And wives cover over the faults and weaknesses of their husbands. Husbands don't go to their buddies and talk to them about all the mistakes and the weaknesses of their wives. They don't make snide, sarcastic remarks. If they do, it's exactly because they're not loving their wife as they ought. They really ought to make us weep. It's vile. Wives don't get on their phone and talk to their sisters in the church about all the faults and shortcomings of their husbands. Wives don't run their husbands down as a form of entertainment. No, they protect each other. You don't put each other down in front of others. You don't put each other down in front of each other. You don't make fun of your spouse in front of your own children. Love doesn't do that. Love covers over and love even bears it in front of the children. And when one has sinned against you, you don't retaliate with sin of your own. You protect. You cover and care for them. Rather than tearing down, you endeavor to build up. Husbands are willing to bear reproach. in order to protect their wives from embarrassment. And wives are willing, even as wives, to bear reproach in order to protect their husbands from embarrassment. That's what love does. This is what we do in our evangelism efforts. Think about that. When we speak to others about Jesus Christ, maybe they mock us. Maybe when we tell them why we don't go to the movies, Or we don't go to a certain restaurant because we don't want to sin. And because we want to live holy before the Lord, and they mock us. What do we do? We bear it. And we don't just bear it spitefully, but we bear it all the while still hoping, maybe by my godly life, by my hope, and even by my conversation, I might show this person why I want to live a holy life. And just how glorious and precious my Jesus is. I bear it. What Paul is emphasizing here in 1 Corinthians 13 is that this is how it needs to be in the church. This is how it needs to be in the church. You need to love each other like family. Because you are family. The greatest example of bearing all things, of course, is Jesus Himself. Jesus didn't just cover all our sins, but Jesus covered our sins in the way of suffering patiently the troubles that came with them. When He was reproached, when He was misunderstood, and He was misunderstood His whole life long. For your sakes, He was misunderstood. When He was put to an open shame, for your sakes, his whole life long. When Jesus was reproached and misunderstood and put to an open shame, He didn't cry out my name. He didn't say, it's all because of Rev. Geigelar's horrible sins that I'm reproached. That's why I'm here on this earth. Even when I cried out, crucify Him, He didn't retaliate. He didn't proceed to defend His name and list off a whole list of accusations that He could levy against me. and expose all my shameful sins before the world, and say that, really, Rev. Geichler should be nailed to the cross, but I'm going to do it anyway, because, well, this is what I'm sent for. No, he bore it. He covered it over. He protected me his whole life long. Even the shame that I put him to, he protected me. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, all the while bearing up under my sins, covering up the shame that I deserve to be exposed to. He bore it for me. Not just before men, but even before the face of His Heavenly Father. That's what love does, don't you see? Love hides the sins of others. Love even sympathizes with others in their sins and wants to help them. Love is willing even to feel the pain and loss that is often part of what is needed to help others. Love is even willing to suffer for someone else's sins. Put it this way. Love wants to save. Love wants to redeem. Love wants to cover over sin and deliver someone from the hurt and the consequences of sin. And if love is able, love will even take on those consequences of sin for that person it loves. You see, that's exactly what Jesus has done for us. He didn't just cover up our sin with a blanket, but He bore our sins in His own body. He redeemed us because He loved us. Genuine love is never quick to exploit, expose, gloat, or condemn. It throws a blanket over sin. It's burdened over sin. It sympathizes with someone else in their sin. And if it can, love is even willing to suffer for someone else's sin. And love will remain your friend, even when love knows all your secrets, and even when you hurt him. Love bears all things. That's the strength of love. Clearly, we're talking about something divine here, aren't we? Divine strength. That's not all love does. Love also believes all things. Well, here too we need to properly understand the meaning. Paul is not saying that love is gullible. Paul's not saying that love believes every single thing it hears and that love isn't discerning. Proverbs 14 verse 15 says that that kind of a person is a fool. In Proverbs 14 verse 15 we read, So what does Paul mean here when he says, love believeth all things? First, we could put it this way. Love believes all things in the sense that love thinks the best of others. Love is always ready to allow for circumstances and see the best in others. Love is always willing to give others the benefit of the doubt. Rather than assuming the worst about them and reaching one's own conclusions about their motives for doing something, love always tries to think the best. Put it this way, love's faith in a person never gives up. Love believes. Love's faith in a person never gives up. Whatever the circumstances, whatever the track record, whatever the obstacles, love is willing to believe the best in others as much as it can. Love doesn't go through life cynical and suspicious, always suspecting that people have ulterior motives. Love doesn't automatically jump to the conclusion that when someone does something wrong, it proves that they were rotten to begin with. Love believes the best that it can. And second, we could understand the phrase this way. Love trusts. I take you at your word. I believe you have good and godly motives. as much as I can. I will not be suspicious, I will not be cynical, but I will trust you." Now that can be a very challenging thing. That takes wisdom. And yet I think this is exactly where love needs to be strong and where many can be weak in their exercise of love. There are many Christians who seem to be very cynical and suspicious. They don't seem able to trust anyone. They're their own man. To them, everyone is corrupt and the reality is it's a lack of love. Yes, sometimes people do get burned trusting people who betray their trust. It can be a challenge. This is what love does. Instead of being judgmental, instead of being quick to judge the worst or believe the worst, love believes the best it can. I think we can see many examples of how love behaves this way. One negative example, one example of those who did not show love this way, is Job's three friends. What a powerful example that is. When Job's friends, his friends, came to him to comfort him, they certainly didn't believe the best about Job, did they? Rather, they were quick to accuse. We know what your problem is, Job. You're evil. That's why you have all these problems and you've lost everything. All your children have died. Because you've committed sin. Listen to what Eliphaz says in Job 22 verses 5-10. This is Job's friend. He says, Is not thy wickedness great, and thine iniquities infinite? This is a man who is righteous in God's eyes. Thine iniquity is infinite? For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for naught, and stripped the naked of their clothing. Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry. Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken. Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee. Those are bold accusations. That's not loving. That's certainly not believing all things. They thought the worst of Job. They were hating Job. And God was very angry with them. If they had loved Job, they would have said, Job's a good man. Job's a righteous man. He's been righteous all his life. There isn't even a hint in anything we've heard that Job sinned. So why should we think any differently of him now? Anything differently of him now that he's lost everything? No, what Job needs now are friends who love him. Let's bear Job's sufferings with him. The way that Job's friends acted towards Job is rather similar to how the Pharisees treated Jesus. They hated him. And how did they treat him? They treated him by refusing to believe anything he said. They attributed evil motives to what he did. You cast out demons in the name of Beelzebub. Who says that? That doesn't even make sense. That's not what love does. Love believes all things. So that maybe when someone isn't in church for a few Sundays in a row, you don't begin right away to judge their spiritual lives, but you say, maybe this person's sick. Maybe this person has fallen into a temptation, but maybe I should just check up on them and see if they need help. And maybe I should love them by showing them concern. Maybe a catechism student doesn't know his memory work like he usually does. Then I as a pastor say, there's probably a very good and legitimate explanation for why this child doesn't know his catechism work. That's the attitude you need to have. So that in our conversations with each other, we believe all things to the point where we say, I need to listen better. I probably need to be the one to learn to appreciate what this person is saying before I even dare give a response. And even when someone falls into sin, I don't suddenly dismiss them as someone who's unregenerate. But I think, here's a wandering sheep that needs love and direction. In this way, think of how Jesus interacted with his disciples. Think of how Jesus dealt with Peter. Peter is going to deny Jesus three times the night before his crucifixion. Jesus knows it, and yet what does Jesus do? First, he prays for Peter, and he warns Peter. And then second, after Peter's great sin, Jesus restores Peter, and Jesus is pleased to use Peter in a mighty way. And the point is, in a certain sense, Jesus believed all things concerning Peter. He believed that Peter could be a disciple. And he could believe all these things concerning Peter, exactly because he knew that he would give Peter the grace and the spirit necessary for his calling. So we can say Jesus, in a sense, believed all things concerning Peter. That's ultimately how we can believe all things concerning each other in the church. Because we believe in God. Because we believe in God's grace and God's power and that God is able to do with the other members of the church even above all that we ask or can even think of the other members of the church. Love believes all things. That's the strength of love. Next, we read, love hopes all things. Love believes all things, love hopes all things. These things are really close together, yet there is a difference between them we can distinguish. And the difference is twofold. First, hope looks forward. Hope is looking into the future. And in that sense, hope goes beyond believing. When I believe all things, then I'm believing all things about a person right now. I say, things are not as bad as they might first appear to be. That's believing all things. But when I hope all things, then I look forward. And I say, well, maybe things are as bad as they appear. Maybe they are even worse than they appear. But I have hope that they can get better. And that's the second thing about hope. Hope doesn't just look into the future, that's the first thing. But hope, in a sense, takes over when I need to come to terms with how bad things actually are. Even when love can't really believe the best about someone, love still doesn't give up on that person. Love hopes that someone lost in sin might one day believe the Gospel. Love hopes that a broken relationship might one day be mended. Love hopes that even after a long struggle through a valley, there will be spiritual progress through it all, and there will be light at the end of the valley. Love hopes that someone who's fallen away might one day be restored, not just to the church membership, but even restored to useful service in the Kingdom of God. Chrysostom, the church father with the golden tongue. He was an eloquent preacher. Chrysostom put it this way. Hope does not despair of the beloved, but even if he seems worthless and hopeless, love continues to correct, to provide, to care for him. When you love someone, this will be your attitude. Is anything too hard for the Lord? That's when hope is loving. Or that's when love hopes. Love doesn't give up. Love doesn't give in to despair. Love says there's always hope because there's always hope in Jesus. Hope in God. Even when my soul is despairing. Isn't that how it is with parents? Even when they see a child that's going wayward. Maybe a child who's even far off the path of righteousness. Isn't that how it was with the father of the prodigal son? In that parable we read, while the son was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. What does that tell you about the father? It tells you that that father must have been looking out his window every single day over the horizon, hoping to see his son coming over the hill. Because he was able to see his son coming from a long way off. He was waiting every day, hoping for his son's return. He had hope because he loved his son. He wouldn't stop hoping for his son's return. That's love. Other people might forget after a while. Maybe this father of this prodigal son, maybe other members in his church had forgotten to pray a long time ago for this prodigal son. Maybe some of them even scorned this prodigal son. But a family, this father was remembering to pray. He kept praying and praying and hoping because that's what love does. Isn't that exactly how it is with the Apostle Paul here in this letter to the Corinthians? These were a people, this was a congregation mired with sin. They had many gifts, but they also had much sin. And yet here Paul is writing this letter to them. Sixteen chapters. And he gives them all kinds of instruction on questions that they have. And why does Paul take the time to write this letter? Because Paul loves these saints and he has hope for them. He even says to them in the second book, 2 Corinthians 1 verse 7, he says, Our hope of you is steadfast. Our hope is unshakable. We still hope. Love doesn't bail out. But love will wait. And love will wait. And in the end, love hopes in God. If we love people, we don't give up on what God can do if he is pleased to do it. And we pray for it in our homes, in our marriages, in our friendships, in the church. And that's exactly how these saints in the church at Corinth needed to interact with each other. They need to have that shift in their attitude towards each other. They need to have hope in each other. They need to believe the best of each other. And even doing so will require that they bear up under heavy burdens that others in the church have inflicted upon them. They need to take the hit for one another. Nevertheless, they will continue to believe the best and hope the best because that's what love does. This is a church filled with division. And Paul says you need to love each other. You need to have hope because without it, you are nothing. You have nothing and you are nothing. Love hopes all things. That's the strength of love. Finally, love endures all things. And here, hopefully you can sense, we're getting to the climax and really the crescendo. Love doesn't just bear all things. Love doesn't just believe all things. Even when hope is fading, love endures all things. It perseveres. The Greek word that Paul uses is a military word. It has to do with a soldier who's been positioned right in the middle of the battle. Right in the heat of a violent battle. And the emphasis then is not on handling minor little annoyances. Paul is talking about love that stands against incredible opposition. And it still loves. It perseveres. It stands its ground against the many attacks of the enemy. It does not run away. It does not dismiss and walk home. It's a courageous, vigorous love that continues to fight no matter how bad the situation is. Think of Stephan. Stephen, who's being stoned to death, and he can't save those men who were stoning him. But what does he do even to the point of death? He prays for them, and he prays that God would not hold their sin to their charge. That's a love that endures, even though his murderers didn't appreciate that kind of love. Think of Paul on all his missionary labors. Paul endured. Think of a mother in the home. A mother who has a newborn child. Maybe she's got six other children she needs to care for and provide for. Maybe she's got three. Maybe she's got one other child. Maybe she doesn't have any other child. Just one newborn child. And that child is colicky. And that child is up at all hours of the night. And the mother has all these other responsibilities and callings in the home. And what does she do with that child? Does she put that child in front of someone else's house and says, it's not my problem? She endures. She perseveres like a soldier on the battlefield. And why does she do it? Because she loves that child. Think of a husband. His wife has just been in an accident and now he has to feed her through a straw the rest of his life. His love for his wife endures it. He quits himself like a man for his wife's sake. Indeed, think of Jesus himself. Jesus, who because of his great love for his bride, endured all the agonies of hell. He persevered. He didn't give up halfway through. And why not? Because of His love for His people, His bride, and because of His love for His Heavenly Father, His love would not allow Him to give up. Because love doesn't give up, love endures all things. How does John 13 verse 1 put it? Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. How does the Song of Solomon put it? Love is strong as death. Many waters cannot quench love. And Jesus, for the joy that was set before Him, not just being exalted at God's right hand, but the joy of intimate fellowship with His beloved Bride, for that joy, Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame. It's nothing because I love my Bride. In love, Jesus bore all things. In love, Jesus believed all things. In love, Jesus hoped all things. In love, Jesus endured all things. And isn't that exactly what we've said about this chapter of 1 Corinthians? Isn't that what we've said before? Paul isn't just talking about love here, Paul is talking about Jesus. He's painting a picture, he's painting a portrait of Jesus. All of these descriptions find their perfect expression in the man, your Savior, Jesus Christ. And that's something we need to remember because this is the unspeakable glory of it all. This is how you've been loved, beloved. Recognize that. This is how you've been loved. This is our experience of Jesus' love for us. Day in and day out we sin. We hurt Him. He bears it. He endures it. This is exactly Jesus' love for us. Love bears all hurts, wounds, sins, and disappointments. Covers them over with a blanket of silence. And love is willing to do so because love believes the best about somebody. Love is never suspicious, even in spite of the way it has been wounded. And even when love's confidence, love's faith has been betrayed, then love will still hope all things. Because love knows God is God and God can do anything. And even when love's hope begins to grow thin, and hope seems lost, love still endures. It can't give up. It cares too much to give up. It will die caring. Even if caring and loving is what brings a person to his own death, he will die caring and loving. That's exactly how Jesus has loved us. We know this love. And now the calling for us is this, go and do likewise. God loves you with this love. God's worked this love within you. And it is your calling to love with that same love, out of that love, and imitate Jesus and reflect His love. If Jesus has so loved us, let us also then so love one another. Amen. Let us pray. Father, again, the salvation that Thou has called us unto is a glorious salvation. So high, we hardly can believe that we can live it. This love is so demanding. So enduring, so divine. Yet, Father, this is what we must have. Without it we are nothing. And we know that too, Father. Love is so excellent. We want to love. We desire this love. And help us, Father, when we struggle to love this way. Because there is not much to believe in. and there is not much hope we can see. Give us a love that endures. Give us the kind of strength that characterized Jesus. Especially here in this church, Father, fill us with the beauty of love for one another to the pleasure and delight of Thy holy name. So bless this preaching to our hearts and our lives, we pray for Jesus' sake, amen.