1 Corinthians 13 1-8 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant, 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. bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never fails. But if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away. Let's pray. Father God, we once again ask for your help this morning. Lord, we know that love is something that comes from Your Spirit. For it's those who are born of the Spirit who can love. And so, Lord, we ask for the power of Your Spirit to grace us with the fruit of the Spirit, which is love. to grow in this area, to multiply our fruitfulness in this area, and to practice these things, and to follow the glorious example that we find in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the incarnation of love. So, Lord, we ask for Your help this morning. We pray this in the name of Your Son, Jesus. Amen. Ken Sandy, who's head of a ministry called Peacemakers, tells a story of a man who was a guest speaker in a small church. And it was one particular Sunday morning that he drove up into the parking lot of this small church, and he was a little bit early, so he was reading through his notes, reviewing his notes as he was going to be preaching that morning. And he had a white pencil that he would put in his mouth and be thumbing through his notes. And as he was thumbing through his notes, somebody pulled up right beside him in the parking lot, one of the deacons. And his head was down, flipping through his notes, and the deacon looked over and he seen this pastor. A couple minutes later, this guest pastor went into the church and was immediately confronted with all this kind of antagonism, especially by the deacons who were there. And he was unaware of what was going on. And so he began to ask them, is there a problem here? And the head deacon spoke up. He said, We find it very offensive that you would sit in our parking lot smoking a cigarette, especially when you're about to preach God's Word from our pulpit. You see, they had thought that this white pencil in his mouth was a cigarette. They didn't have all the facts, but they jumped to the conclusion. that he was smoking a cigarette. They thought the worst, the worst possible situation. Instead of investigating, instead of trying to understand the situation, they immediately jumped to certain conclusions without believing the best and hoping the best. And this is what Paul is going to teach us, how love is a kind of optimistic love, that love thinks the best, love hopes the best, love believes the best, until all the information speaks to the contrary. We've been going through 1 Corinthians 13 and been challenged in this way of love. And if you remember, in the first three verses, we saw that love is a priority. We saw the priority of love, that without love, nothing else really matters. That if you have the most eloquent speaking gifts, to speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, it's just an irritating noise. If you have all knowledge, have the gifts of prophecy, but do not have love, you are nothing. And if you have the greatest acts of sacrifice, giving everything you have to the poor, giving your body to the flames in martyrdom, but do not have love, it profits nothing. And then in verses 4 through 7, if you remember, we've been looking through the 15 practices of love. And all of them are verbs. All of them are third-person singular verbs that speak of the practice of love. We've seen, if you remember, in verse 4, that love is patient or long-suffering. That love is kind. It seeks to be useful and helpful to others. We've seen that love is not jealous. It's not envious. It's not pooling for positions with others. Love does not brag. Love doesn't speak highly of self. Love is not arrogant. We see also in verse 5 that love does not act unbecomingly. It's not rude, but it seeks to be considerate towards others. We've also seen that love does not seek its own in and of itself, that love is not selfish. We've also seen that love is not provoked or easily angered, easily irritated, easily annoyed. We've also seen that love does not take into account a wrong suffered, that love is forgiving towards others. It's quick to wipe the slate clean. And then, last week, we saw what love rejoices in, what love dances with. We've seen, first of all, in verse 6, that love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, it doesn't delight in unrighteousness, but it rejoices or co-rejoices with the truth. And now, this week, we come to the last four practices of love. We're going to see, first of all, in verse 7, that love protects all the worst things. We're going to see that love believes all the best things, love hopes all the best things, and love endures all the worst things. And my goal this morning is that we would see and seek to practice a love that is optimistic towards others and a love that is tenacious and relentless towards others. Let's look first of all in verse 7, that love bears all things. Love bears all things. And we learn from this that your love must protect all the worst. You may wonder, how do you get that, Matt? Well, the word bear can be somewhat misleading. It looks like it would be the same as the last word in this staccato of love in verse 7. It looks like it would be the same as love endures all things, but the word is a different word and it carries a little bit different connotation. In fact, if you have the New American Standard, you may see that the marginal reading says that love covers. And that's probably the best idea. In fact, Kittel's theological dictionary of the New Testament says, quote, the basic meaning of this word is to keep cover. But this gives it such a sense as to protect, to ward off, to hold back, to resist, to support. It can also mean to keep secret, to keep silent, to keep a confidence. so that the meaning is to conceal or protect. In fact, the noun form of this verb means a house. It means a protection. It means a covering. And of course, when Paul says that love bears all things or love protects all things, Paul is speaking in what we would call hyperbole. Which, what is a hyperbole? A hyperbole is something that is an extravagant exaggeration for the purpose of communicating something. Does Paul ever use this form of communication? Well, he actually does. If you look at the verse 2 verses of this chapter, Paul uses hyperbole in verse 1 and 2. He says, If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I believe when he's speaking in tongues of angels, he's speaking in hyperbole, even if I spoke some kind of heavenly language. And then we see that also in verse 2, he's speaking in hyperbole, in exaggeration. He says, if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing." Notice these things that he's mentioned, if I know all mysteries, if I know all the revelation of God's Word. Is that possible? And then he says, if I have all knowledge. Who could honestly say that they're omniscient except God Himself? Who can say that they have the sum of all knowledge? It's only God Himself. So Paul in the first two verses is clearly speaking in hyperbole. It's an exaggerated situation for the sake of emphasis. And so when we come to this last section in 1 Corinthians 13.7, Paul employs this hyperbole for the sake of communication. So that when he says that love protects or bears all things, he's not saying that love always brushes sin underneath the carpet, or love always protects everything, because there's a time for things to be brought out in the open. There's a time for sin to be rebuked, sin to be admonished. But the general pattern is that love always wants to protect others in their sin, in their unrighteousness, unless it's impossible before God to do so. The old English Puritan commentator Matthew Henry says concerning this verse, It is not for blazing or publishing the faults of a brother till duty manifestly demands it. A necessity only can extort this from the charitable loving mind. Though such a man be free to tell his brothers his faults in private, he is very unwilling to expose him in making them public. Did you catch it? That love seeks to protect others unless it's absolutely necessary before God to tell others about this particular sin. And so that when he says, believes all things, in verse 7 he's saying, love protects all things, he's talking about love protects all the worst things in others. And then in the middle too, when he says that love believes all things and love hopes all things, love believes and hopes all the best in others. And then the last phrase that love endures all things, love endures all the worst things for the sake of love for another. And this is something that the Bible would teach, that we are to be protective towards others in their own particular and peculiar sins. It doesn't mean that there's not a time to rebuke, to admonish, to bring their sin out in the open, but even when you are doing that, you're seeking to do it in private to protect the reputation, the shame, the harm of that other person. And this, no doubt, is why even in the context of church discipline, in Matthew 18, when Jesus gives instruction on how the church is to deal with sin, and even at some point to bring it out in the open before all the people of God, to plead with the person to repent, even in that context, the first step of church discipline, Jesus says in Matthew 18, verse 15, He says, if your brother sins, go and show him his fault. How? In private. In private. Why? Because love wants to protect that person. It doesn't delight in reveling and upholding the sin of another, exposing and publishing and broadcasting the sins of others. It wants to protect that other person. Unless, for their own good, because they're unrepentant, You have to then expose that sin to another person and tell another person, two or three, and bring them along to try and help this person and plead with them to repent. And then if that doesn't work, then you bring it publicly. But all too often, friends, what is the first step in most people's lives? The first step is to see the sin and to tell it publicly. to broadcast it to everybody, to shame the other person, instead of going to them, pleading with them, begging them to turn from this way. Why? Because there's this sick, perverted self-righteousness in each of us that delights in exposing the sins of others because somehow we begin to feel better about ourselves when we see others in that light. And friends, love doesn't do that. Love wants to protect others. And even if we think about the basic principle that Jesus Himself says to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, you would not want your dirty laundry of sins hanging on the clothesline for everybody to see, would you? Unless it was absolutely necessary. I mean, I think I can honestly say before God that if I was in unrepentant sin, I would want all the people of God to raise up to know about this sin and to be pleading with me to repent. But, if it was a sin that I was unaware of, because sin is deceiving and I was blind to the sin and somebody needed to come along and show me this sin, and help me to repent of this sin, I would not want that sin broadcast before everybody. And so the principle of wanting to do unto others as we would have them do unto us would want to protect and cover all the worst things in others. But as I said, there's this perverse delight in our own hearts, to want to uphold and expose and publish the sins, the downfalls of others. Proverbs 10.12 says, Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions. That love wants to put a blanket over another's sins. It wants to help that person with their sin, but they want to put a blanket over them. Proverbs 18, verse 8 says, The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels. They go down into the innermost parts of the body. The wisest man who lived before Christ with Solomon, and he was able to perceive that gossip, hearing bad or evil or sin in somebody else, it becomes like a dainty morsel that you take in, and you enjoy, and you revel in, and you delight in the sins of others, and then spreading that dainty morsel to others. But the God of the Bible would say that love doesn't do that. Love wants to protect. Proverbs 17, verse 9 says, He who conceals a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends. He who conceals a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends. You see that? That love wants to protect and conceal the sins of another. That repeating a matter is just a manifestation of self-righteousness and hatred. Once again, understanding that it doesn't mean that there's not a time for formal church discipline and those things, but even when that happens, it should grieve our hearts to have to expose the sin of somebody else. Proverbs 20.19 says, He who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets. Therefore, do not associate with a gossip. Proverbs would tell us, the Bible would tell us, not only should we not engage in spreading around the dainty morsels of sin of others, but we ourselves should refuse to listen to it. We should not associate with one who engages in such activity. We should let it fall on deaf ears, not respond to such kinds of gossip and slander. But once again, there is this seed of sin in our hearts that delights in exposing others. And it's even learned from such a young age. Isn't that true? You don't have to teach your children to tattletale on each other, do you? They delight and revel in exposing the sins of their brothers and sisters. And they run to Mommy and Daddy and say, so-and-so was doing this. It starts at a young age because those seeds of sin are in our hearts, that kind of self-righteousness that delights in exposing the sins of others so that we are seen in a better possible light. And parents, I would admonish you to not allow your children to do that. Perhaps when they do something like that, you can tell them, oh, were you concerned about Susie's Christ-like character and their growth in the Lord? Is that why you're telling me this? Maybe you should go back to them and tell them that the Lord would be displeased with this activity and that you need to grow in this area. Let's not cultivate that, because it's the bent in each and every one of our hearts to want to publish the sins of others. But 1 Corinthians 13.7 says that love protects all things. But love not only protects all the worst things in others, but love believes the best in others. Look at the next phrase. says that love believes all things. This is hard. I mean, I read that. I really struggled this week on how to understand this passage. In fact, for about half the week, I was understanding believing all things and hoping all things as being directed towards God. And you can toy with that interpretation yourself. The only person I ever found who believed that was Jonathan Edwards. But anyways, it was very tempting. But I winded up coming down. He's talking about believing all things in the sense of our relationship with others. Believing all the best in others. Now, this does not mean that Christians are supposed to be gullible. In fact, Proverbs 14.15 says, the naive believes everything but the sensible man considers his steps. The naive believes everything. We're not supposed to be naive. We're not supposed to lack discernment. In fact, Philippians chapter 1 verse 9, when Paul prays for the Philippians to grow in their love, he says, I pray this, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge in all discernment. Paul prays for the Philippians that their love would be a discerning love, that they would grow in this love, but it would be a love that is according to knowledge and discernment. So Paul is not advocating a kind of blind belief in others. In fact, I read a story this past week of a man who owned a grocery store and he was in great financial difficulty in the store because he was a godly man, he was a saintly man, he loved the Lord. And all the people who would purchase groceries at the store, they would work up a bill with him. And they wouldn't pay the bill because they knew that this man, he's so godly, he's so loving that he would never force me to pay or he would never take me to court. And so they would begin to step on this man over and over. And so finally he came to the point where he was going to have to lose his business if he did not force these people to pay up. And so what he did was he posted on the bulletin board. This message, on this bulletin board 30 days from now, will appear the names of all persons who have been indebted to me for one year or more and who, after repeated requests, have refused to pay. Some have told me that they are unable to pay, but they are able to build homes, to drive cars, and have all other things that I could have had if the money would have been given that was due to me. I hope I do not have to put names on the board, but I won't be put off any longer. You see, I don't see that as incompatible with love. And I don't see it being incompatible if you understand that there's certain sin or certain wrongdoing in a person's life, to help them to see that and understand that. But, Paul does mean something by this. When he says, love believes all things, I believe what he's saying is that love believes all the best that it can about others until there's information to the contrary. This means that you strive to believe the best about others until you have information that is to the contrary. So that if there's a situation in which you can interpret this situation in one of two ways, seeing this person in a bad light or a good light, that love will choose the good light unless it's certain that there's some other kind of information to the contrary. Jonathan Edwards, in commenting on this, It says that, quote, love thinks the best of others that the case will allow. This means that love is not suspicious, love is not cynical towards others, love is not always looking for the evil in others, but love believes the best that it can until information contrary would prove otherwise. And this also is hard. I mean, especially because of some of our doctrinal distinctives, some of our theological distinctives. I mean, we hear news that so-and-so got saved. Yeah, we'll see. Because we know, we understand true conversion, and we understand what God does in the human heart. And so, at times, our kinds of theological convictions can bend us towards being suspicious or unbelieving towards others when information does not go to the contrary. And friends, we need to root that out of our hearts. I'm not advocating us to be gullible, but there is a sense in which this kind of love will make you vulnerable. It'll make you vulnerable. And we've seen this, the opposite of this characteristic in Job's friends, remember? When you have Job's friends, I mean, who needs enemies, right? Job's friends, they've seen all of this tragedy that was happening in Job's life. They've seen that he had lost his business. They've seen that he had lost his family, his children. All of a sudden he had lost his health. He had boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. And his friends, they looked at that situation, and how did they interpret it? Did they believe all things? Did they believe the best possible scenario? No, they didn't. They accused him of sin. They pointed their bony finger in his face and said, Job, you have some kind of secret sin in your life. In fact, in one of the verses in that account, when Job is quoting them, he says that they said, Behold, I know your thoughts and the plans which you would wrong me. They thought that they knew Job's thoughts. They thought that they knew Job's motives. They thought that they knew that there was some kind of secret sin in Job's life, and they were not believing the best about him. And the Bible says, love would seek to believe all things, and to believe in this context, it's believing all the best. So that when the jury is out, when the information is not clear, that you seek to believe the best about that situation. This also happened in the life of Christ, did it not? I mean, it was the scribes and the Pharisees who already had a hatred towards Jesus. And on the occasions that they would see Him do miraculous things, they would look at Him and they would see Him be able to cast out demons, instead of saying, hmm, wow, it looks like this person has power from God. Maybe He is the Messiah. What did they do? He cast out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons. That's what they said. Why? Because he didn't love Jesus. They hated Jesus. Or when they would see him dining and eating with tax collectors and sinners, you remember what they said? He's a drunk and a glutton. You see, love doesn't do that. Love looks at a situation, And it's not hypercritical. It seeks to believe the best. It seeks to be discerning. If there's true information to the contrary, it's not going to believe a lie. But nonetheless, if the jury's out, if the information's not clear, it seeks to believe the best. Friends, this... Natural bent towards evil is in each of us. We have that suspicious eye towards everybody. I mean, if your employer fails to give you a raise, what do you immediately conclude? These greedy people, all they do is care about themselves. Look at them, they got big buildings, CEOs probably making millions of dollars. When maybe, the business is struggling. Maybe it's a very competitive market. Maybe there's so many overhead costs that it's hard for them to give you a raise, and they want to give you a raise, but they're not able to. But love seeks to believe the best about that situation, unless there's certain information to the contrary. Or if you come across somebody in church, they seem unfriendly, what's the immediate response? Boy, they're pretty snobby. They must be proud. I wonder what kind of relationship they have with their spouse at home. Instead of, maybe this person has difficult times being real sociable. Maybe this person is waiting for somebody else to reach out to them and to strike up a conversation with them, but they feel awkward and uncomfortable in conversation. You see, love seeks to hope and believe the best about others until there's information to the contrary. And how ugly this can get. When we would assume the posture of omniscience and act as if we know the thoughts of others. As if we know the thoughts and motives and intentions of others. When we do such a thing, we assume the posture of omniscient, almighty God as judge. I mean, we frequently make statements like, all he cares about is money. Oh really? Have you probed the recesses of his heart? Or, she dresses that way to draw attention to herself. Oh, really? Do you know all of her motivations? Or, he's too proud to listen to advice. Are you omniscient? She's just not trusting the Lord. Do you have eyes that know all? They're so materialistic. Look at the car they drive. Do you know what's in their heart? Now, all these statements, these appraisals, they can be true at times. But to make dogmatic assertions about a person's motives without clear information on that is sin against God. James 4.11 says, Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against his brother judges his brother. There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy, but who are you to judge your neighbor? When we assume that we can know the thoughts and intentions, the motives of somebody else's heart, it's like we pull The judges robe off of God's back, push Him out of the way, steal His gavel and render judgment. But love doesn't do that. Love does not usurp the authority of God, the judgment of God. Now, I'm not saying, once again, I caution here, it doesn't mean that we're not to be discerning, we're not to be understanding, we're not to be cautious about certain things, but when the information is not clear, we should seek to believe the best. But your love should not only protect all the worst things, believe all the best things, But also, your love must hope for the best. Look at this third phrase in the staccato of love. In verse 7, love hopes all things. It hopes all things. It's optimistic towards others. And this is amazing because you can see this pattern in the Apostle Paul himself from this very book of 1 Corinthians. Have you ever pondered that? Have you ever pondered the kind of church that Paul was writing to in 1 Corinthians? I mean, this was a church, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and 6, some people were sleeping with prostitutes. This was a church, according to really the whole book, there was division within the church. They were fighting and bickering amongst one another. This is also a church that there was a person engaged in an incestuous relationship in chapter 5, and the rest of the church was looking the other way and was proud of their liberality and generosity towards this person engaging in this incestuous relationship. They were suing one another. They were taking each other to court, according to chapter 6. According to chapter 11, people were getting drunk at the Lord's table. According to these chapters that we find ourselves, it seems that their public worship was a kind of a circus. Now, most of us, myself included, had we heard that about the church in Corinth, we'd have written them off as apostate. said, that's one of those liberal churches. I wouldn't darken the doors of that church. I wouldn't go near there. Come out from among them and be ye separate. And yet, Paul is amazingly hopeful about these Corinthians. It doesn't mean that he doesn't admonish them or warn them. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 6, he points his finger at them and says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? And he gives a list of sins, and some of those sins are included in the Corinthian church that he was talking about. He says that drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God. He says that fornicators will not inherit the kingdom of God. He deals with those two issues in the church at Corinth. So I'm not saying that he's gullible and doesn't warn them and doesn't assume that there very well may be some unbelievers there, but he's very hopeful. He's very hopeful. Why? Because he knows the power of God. He knows that God is able to take a drunkard And in that very context, he says, such were some of you. But you were washed, you were justified, you were sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul was able to be hopeful towards others in their best well-being. Why? Because he knew the power of God to transform a life. And love is hopeful towards others. Love hopes for the best in others because it knows the power of God to do that. And it wants that. It wants that. In fact, it's shocking the way that Paul even opens up the letter to the church at Corinth. He says in chapter 1, verse 2, to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling. He assumes that most of them are believers. He does challenge them to make sure that they are believers. In 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5, he says, examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith. But then even in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 8, he says, who will confirm you to the end? That is, God will confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful. Paul was amazingly optimistic about what God could do in somebody's life because he knew the power of God and he wanted that for them. He longed for that. His heart burned to see them growing in the Lord. I mean, as a healthy exercise, at some point, take all the prayers of the Apostle Paul throughout the New Testament and see him unveil his heart towards the people of God. He burned for them to grow into greater Christlikeness. He hoped all things. But you see, Some of the sins that take root in our hearts will not allow us to hope for the best for others. If we have hatred towards another, you're not going to hope for the best for somebody who you don't like. If you have jealousy towards another, you're not going to hope for the best for that person. If you're self-righteous and you want to see yourself in the best possible light, you want to see yourself as standing out over against other people, then you're not going to hope for the best in others. If you have self-pity rooted in your heart, you have the, oh, poor me syndrome, just focused on self, You'll hope the best for yourself, but you're not going to hope the best for others. If there's unforgiveness and bitterness in your heart, if you're holding a grudge and are vengeful towards others, guess what? You're not going to be hopeful and hope all the best things for others. And so, we'll look at certain people that we may deem as hopeless. We see somebody struggling with the same sin for a long period of time and we may think or even say out loud, he'll never change. Or, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. But you see, love knows the power of God and love wants the power of God to meet somebody where they're at and change and transform their lives and that's why hope why love will hope all things. There's a dear brother who used to be an usher at Grace Community Church. His name is John Lindberg. And this brother came to me on one occasion rejoicing so happy His brother had a stroke some 15 or 20 years ago, and he has a difficult time talking, difficult time communicating, but he was so glad and rejoicing, and he told me how his father, who was now in his 90s, was just converted and saved. And then he relayed to me how he had been praying for decades for his father's salvation. For decades. See, that's what love does. It hopes all things. It hopes, spurs one to pray for that person knowing and believing in the power of God to transform somebody's life. And it perseveres in that. So, I ask you this morning, do you hope all the best for others? All of God's best, not all the world's best. I'm not saying hoping that They'll have yachts and mansions that may not be the best, but hoping for God's best in their life. A good test of whether we really do hope all things and hope all the best things for others is as do we do as Paul exhorted the Romans to do in Romans chapter 12, and to rejoice with those who rejoice. When they do experience some good, when they do experience growth in their lives, do our hearts overflow with joy in rejoicing towards them? Or, He would say, hmm, we'll see. We'll see how genuine that is. So we've seen that love, your love must protect all the worst things. Your love must believe all the best things. Your love must hope all the best things. And now forth, your love must endure all the worst things. The last phrase in verse 7. He says, that love endures all things. It endures all things. Paul uses a military term here, which speaks of the idea of remaining under in the heat of a battle. Remaining under amidst opposition, amidst warfare, but you stand fast amidst it. That's the kind of endurance that Paul says that love practices. Love is tenacious. Love is relentless. Love cuts through all the opposition, all the suffering, all the discomfort, all the pain, and thrives amidst it. And friends, we all have our boundaries, don't we? We all have our limits that we set, usually because of our own love of comfort or our own love of convenience. We set the limit, we say we will go this far and no farther. But this says that love endures all things. Love endures all the worst things that get thrown at us. And there's probably only one area in which, in the realm of nature, this is defied. It's in the area of parents with their children. A parent who endures lack of sleep. A parent who endures lack of eating. A parent who endures lack of recreation, lack of entertainment. A parent who sacrifices their own career. A parent who sacrifices their own comforts for their child. But as far as I know, that's about the only realm of nature in which this principle is defied. But we're talking about the realm of grace. And in so many other areas, even in the area of the marriage union with our spouses or with our friends, we have drawn the line and we say, we'll go this far and no further. But this says that love endures all things. Love knows no boundaries. Now, this doesn't mean, once again, that there may be a time to put your foot down and say, out of love, friend, wife, husband, you need to repent of this. But that's not driven out of selfishness. That's driven out of love and concern for somebody else. Or parents with children who become rebellious and are milking off all their parents. Love will cut off the supplies. Or love will stop supporting those kinds of evil habits or whatever it may be. I'm not saying that. But nonetheless, love will endure all things. It will endure all the worst things. And we have a tendency to put limits on our love. We'll love as long as it doesn't interfere with my schedule. Or we'll love as long as it doesn't interfere with my rights. Or we'll love as long as it's not... sacrificing or painful to me. And somehow we think that we can love with a love that does not cost anything and does not sacrifice anything. But what is the picture of love in the Bible? It's always a kind of sacrificial love. It's always a kind of love that gives, a love that costs. This love endures all things. This love is exemplified in the Apostle Paul himself. He was a man who had devoted his life to others. In fact, when you read some of the accounts of 1st and 2nd Corinthians, he talks about how he was beaten times without number, he was stoned, he was shipwrecked. Time and time again, all the suffering, all the persecution that he endured. Why? On earth would you do such a thing? We catch a glimpse that in Romans 9 and Romans 11, He says, My prayer for Israel is that they would be saved. My burning heart desire is for their salvation, for my own brethren, and also that extended out to the Gentile communities as well. He burned in His heart in love and was willing to endure the most difficult hardships that are imaginable. Why? Because He loved. He loved God and he loved others. He even says in Romans chapter 9 that he could wish himself a curse for the sake of his brethren. That is amazing love. That is a love that endures hardship, endures difficulty, endures pain. We see this example also in Moses. An unlikely example. Most of us, when we think of Moses, we can't seem to get Charlton Heston out of our mind, this big burly figure. But Moses was a man of love. In fact, he endured such great hardship throughout his ministry to the people of God in the Old Testament. I mean, they complained incessantly about his leadership. They accused him of abuse, evil motives, pride, ineptitude. And they even said that he was trying to kill their children. Remember? They would say that time and time again. Why did you bring us out into this desert? What are you doing? Trying to kill us? At one point, he says that they are about to stone me to death. Evidently, they had rocks in their hands and Moses is there crying out to God. On one occasion, even his own brother and sister revolted against him, questioned his leadership and said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken to us also? Imagine that. The people closest to you. And yet, how does Moses respond? How does Moses' love endure amidst all this? On at least four occasions throughout the Pentateuch, he's on his knees, pleading and interceding before God for that very people that were complaining, grumbling, accusing him of being inept as a leader, accusing him of trying to kill their children. And yet, his heart poured out in love towards God and love towards these people. That is a love that endures. And one of the beautiful things is that Moses himself, in Deuteronomy 18, says that one would come whom God would send who would be just like Him in many ways, but would surpass Him. In Deuteronomy 18, verse 15, Moses said, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your own countrymen, and you shall listen to Him. And that was fulfilled in the greatest intercessor of all. The greatest example of love that endures of all. Jesus. The one whom on the day in which He was baptized, and John the Baptist immersed Him in the water, and then there was the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove coming down upon Him, and then there was a voice from heaven. You remember what the voice said? This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him. We see that at the Transfiguration. Listen to Him. This is exactly what Moses said in Deuteronomy 18.15, that there would come a prophet like me, and you must listen to Him. And He is the ultimate example of enduring love, a love that endures all of the worst things imaginable. endured being an outcast in his own hometown. Do you remember that? He came to his own hometown of Capernaum and they tried to throw him off a cliff after he began to preach in the synagogue. He endured ill treatment by his own family members. Check out John chapter 7. Remember? His brothers were mocking him. He endured having no place to lay His head during His itinerant ministry. He said, remember, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. He endured the mocking and the abuse. Even when He was on the cross of His example of love, on the cross dying, people were saying to Him, He saved others, why can't He save Himself? Why don't you come down from the cross? Those closest to him turned their backs on him. He endured that. Remember, one of the inner three, Peter, betrayed him, denied him three times. One of his inner twelve, Judas, sold him for thirty pieces of silver. And then the ultimate thing that he endured was being forsaken by the Father. He cries out on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why would He endure all that? It was love for the Father and love for His own people that drove Him to endure all that. But what if Jesus had set up boundaries, said, Once my personal comfort is violated, I will not go to the cross. Once my personal rights are violated, that's where love stops. Once my personal comfort and convenience are violated, that's where my love stops. What if He stops? We'd all be sentenced to hell without hope. Without the hope of forgiveness of sins. The love of Jesus endured all of those things. And then He says on one occasion, just as I have loved you, so you are to love one another. That means that it must be a love that endures all the worst things. It must be a love that endures hardship, a love that's willing to sacrifice, a love that's willing to give up personal rights, give up personal convenience, give up personal comforts. But if we draw lines, we cannot imitate that glorious example of love that's found in Jesus. But that's the standard. That's the necessity. You see, because it's that very act of love, it's that very cross work of Christ when He died and rose from the dead that gives us any hope of forgiveness of sin. For all of our lovelessness, for our cold and hard hearts that refuse to reach out in love towards others, that makes us guilty before God. And we need that cross work of Christ as our only hope. Our only hope is to cast ourselves upon that mercy that's found in the cross, and to repent. So, is your love an enduring love this morning? How much endurance do you exercise in your love? Your relationship with your spouse? How much do you endure before you cut it off and say, OK, I'm not going to love anymore? your relationship with friends. Sometimes God places people in our life who seem like sponges that have sucked the life out of you. Sometimes I wonder if that's God teaching us how much our love is to endure. It doesn't mean that the person who calls you at 2 in the morning says they've got a problem, you don't admonish them and say, you need to be considerate about me and my family. But nonetheless, how far will our love go? How much will our love endure? We must have a love that seeks to endure hardship and sacrifice towards others. was during Oliver Cromwell's reign as Lord Protector of England, that there was a young soldier who was sentenced to die. We don't know why he was sentenced to die. We don't know what crime he was accused of. But he was sentenced to die, and once the curfew bell rang, every evening the curfew bell would ring in England, and that was when this man was to be hung. Well, there was a woman whom he was engaged to. was engaged to be married to this woman. And she loved him deeply. And before they were about to ring that curfew bell, she secretly climbed up in the bell and wrapped her body around the clapper that would hit against the bell and ring the bell. And as the man tried to ring the bell, he was pulling it back and forth, back and forth. The bell didn't ring. It was silent. And when Cromwell investigated a little bit further, they brought down the woman who was bruised and bleeding all over her. And Cromwell was so moved by the love of this woman that He absolved and pardoned the man who was to be hung. And somebody who was watching wrote this poem. At his feet she told her story, showed her hands all bruised and torn, and her sweet young face still haggard with the anguish it had worn. Touched his heart with sudden pity, lit his eyes with misty light. Go, your lover lives, said Cromwell. Curfew will not ring tonight." You see, this was an example, this woman of a love that protects all things. She wanted to protect her husband. This was a love that believed and hoped all things. She believed the best about her husband. She believed that he was innocent and was willing to take that kind of burden for him. And this was a love that endured. She was willing to sacrifice her own body for her husband. And this is the kind of love that God calls us to this morning. Let's pray. Father God, Lord, this is a high and holy standard of love which is impossible in and of ourselves to be obedient to. Lord, I pray that you would grace us with deeper love towards one another. Give us hearts that bleed with love. Help us to grow in these areas. Help us not to be hypercritical and suspicious, but to believe and hope all things. Help us not to expose other's sins, but to have a love that protects others. Help us not to have a wimpy love that bails out at the first moment of pain and discomfort. Help us to have a love that endures all things and will give you the glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.