“It does not rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” –I Corinthians 13:6-7 [ESV]
“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” –I Corinthians 13:6-7 [NIV]
In seeking the depth of truth in these verses and trying to understand God’s message concerning how I should exercise godly love in my life, I gathered about me the various translations of the Bible I have and read each prayerfully. One phrase presents a “problem” to interpret. That is the phrase, in the KJV, the NKJV, the ESV (and perhaps others): “Love…believes all things.”
Immediately an argument arises: How can I ‘believe all things’ in love? Certainly there are untruths, false doctrines, rampant rumors and ideologies I have no business believing. Where does discernment come in? What could God through Paul have meant by saying that “love believes all things”? This morning I wish I had moved to this house our Greek-English interlinear New Testament. Then I could have refreshed my small understanding of the Greek language as I pondered this “problem” phrase. But I think I found my answer in the NIV translation: Instead of “believes all things” the phrase is rendered “always trusts.” Indeed, the one who loves always trusts the beloved. Trust is a necessary basis for love.
For you who may have The Message (The Bible in Contemporary Language) by Eugene H. Peterson, you will enjoy the way he arranges verses 4-7 as a “set-apart” list of attributes and actions of love. For this problem phrase--“believes all things”—he writes it as “Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth.” If we seek God’s will in love we will know truth, and know what to believe, for Jesus said, “I am…Truth.” Add to truth trust and love can grow.
And now we move to “love lived in real life,” or “love in action.” And I illustrate with two of my own life experiences, brought firmly to mind because today is a special day in the Jones family, February 17.
I write this on February 17, an anniversary on two counts. My second grandson and fourth grandchild, Nathan Jones, was born February 17, 1980. It’s hard to believe that he is already 30 years old. Time has a way of passing rapidly as you see a winsome boy grow into a responsible adult. Reared by Christian parents in a Christian home and brought up in nurturing churches, Nathan has been “on his own” for several years. Now he works in a job he loves as a school band director in Karnes City, Texas. He and his wife Kayla also are active in their church where they lead the youth and he is part-time minister of music. They have little Brenna, 3 ½, whom they are training up in a Christian home and teaching the characteristics of love-in-action as outlined by Paul. When one grows old (as I am), experiencing a Christian legacy active to the third and fourth generation down from yourself gives pause for gratitude and rejoicing. Love hopes. Love endures.
February 17th’s second anniversary of significance to this Jones family means that this is the date when Grover and I moved from Epworth to Milledgeville in 2003, taking up a new residence and a new way of life here after thinking we were “settled” in the mountains until the Lord calls us home. But love and how to deal with circumstances cause us to make necessary changes and adjustments in life. After much prayer and listing the positives and negatives of such a major move, I purchased the house next door to our daughter Cynthia in June, 2002. (Grover was then already into the grip of Alzheimer’s and unable to make major decisions, so I had to do this transaction on my own). Weighing the situation, I went with the characteristic of love which The Message lists as “Trusts God always.”
Christians have accepted us here as their brothers and sisters in Christ. Love has been shown in deed and in fellowship. Has it been easy to make the transition? No. But the assurance that God directed the move has been paramount. We’ve missed close proximity with the hills of home and friends and relatives there we held so dear. Painful decisions have been necessary, as, three years ago (February 22, 2007) Grover had to enter a nursing home facility. Since then, we both have endured and survived serious illnesses and surgeries. Through it all, God’s love and the love of fellow Christians and family have sustained us. Love endures. As The Message states it, “Love keeps going (and I should add keeps growing) to the end.”
Prayer: Father, thank You for insights into Your unconditional love. From it we learn how to love one another, for God is love. May our love keep going until the end and beyond. Amen.
c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Wednesday, February 17, 2010
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