To Trust or Not to Trust

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

TO TRUST OR NOT TO TRUST

 

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

If it is love, then it always trusts. Again, it is extremely interesting the Greek word, pisteuo, is the word usually translated as faith. That is the direct meaning, to have faith in. It Also carries the meaning of to believe, to think to be true; to be persuaded of; to credit, place confidence in. Now this is how we think about others because we love them. We believe in them. Of course, it is not like we believe in God, because He is the only one who can offer us internal life, along with a host of other blessings. That is a question, why do we believe in God? what is the reason we believe in God? Without believing in God what hope do we have? But when it comes to people, especially in our marriage, there would also be no hope, if we did not believe in our spouse, if we did not have faith in them, trust them. We certainly trust in God because we love Him. That is what we are to do with people. We have heard some say that they trust someone until they do something to cause them to distrust them. Then that would have to also mean they stopped loving them. That would also mean by stopping to trust them, stopping to love them is sin, for we are commanded to love others as God loves us. What if God stopped loving us? What if He stopped trusting us, believing in us? Our personal world would crash, we would be devastated and lose all hope. It would seem this would be the situation if we discovered that we were seen as untrustworthy, and no one put their trust in us. It would seem we would feel hopeless, and there would be no reason to continue even trying. Therefore, we must love others, which means we must trust them, put our faith, believe in them in the sense that they are honest upright people. Of course, just as with ourselves, they will have sin in their lives, but that is not a reason to mistrust them, or we would have to mistrust ourselves as well. So then, we have to come to the conclusion that because we love them, we have to trust them.