Love Stays

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

LOVE STAYS

1 Cor 13:4-7

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

NIV

Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and it also perseveres. This last characteristic of love has this meaning, according to the Greek, of remaining under, to stay under. Hupomeno sounds a lot like a hippopotamus, is an animal that stays under the water a lot. Nevertheless, it means that because we love, we will remain under even difficult times. This reminds us of the poem footprints with there always being two sets, ours and the Lords, but when times became difficult there was only one set, and the question was why did the Lord leave when it got tough and He answers because he was carrying us. That is love persevering. There seems no better explanation. Because we love, we will carry the burden of others. This is especially true in marriage, but it should also apply within the community of faith. Granted, we cannot take on the burden of every person in the church, but at the same time, if one of them is going through an extremely difficult time, perhaps even in a sinful situation, we the church would not stop loving them, but rather hold them up under pray. We would persevere through with them, as God does with us. Loving means we have that fortitude to stay the course, it is not responsive as any aspect of love is. In other words, love is not a response to being loved, although we are told that we love God because He first loved us. That is true, but in our loving others, it has to be our choice, not our response. So then no matter the circumstance, we remain faithful in our love toward others, we persevere, we endure, we remain steadfast.