Love Endures All Things
Anxiety
I read about anxiety a lot. Anxiety comes up, it seems, in all sorts of places. Anxiety, in the broadest sense, describes a condition of the human heart regarding the future. In older usage, anxious could be synonymous with eagerness — a positive relation to the future. Today, it largely refers to negative movements of the inner man guessing about what’s next.
Worry. Stress. Uncertainty. Perseveration. Insecurity. Fear. Nervousness. Dread. Overthinking. Restlessness. Unease. Tension. Fragility. Suspicion.
Our anxieties arise as faith falters (Matthew 6:25-34) with the question, “What if the future is more than I can bear?” But Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:7 that love endures all things. In other words, no matter what life throws at us, patience and kindness persevere. No matter how bleak the horizon, love can survive there.
For love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and finally, endures all things.
Endurance
We’ve already looked at how love can help us put up with negative situations, maintain the proper perspective, and never lose hope. [Love Bears All Things, Love Believes All Things, Love Hopes All Things]
Inevitably, anxiety spins around what might happen, often exaggerating matters and seeking avoidance strategies. Here’s an exaggerated example: We think things like,
If I fumble this social interaction with my coworker, they’ll think I’m weird, then I’ll get fired, then my family will starve, and we’ll all die. So, I’ll wait to eat lunch until later.
That’s the difference between bearing all things and enduring all things. Bearing emphasizes the present burdens, but endurance emphasizes the future. And Paul says that love not only can bear the situations it finds itself in but also can endure all that might happen — choosing patience and kindness over flight.
Love Endures All Things
What sort of courageous love is this? A love that, despite all possible futures, keeps going. When Paul says, “all things,” he is not exaggerating. He means that love, patient and kind, can get through anything — no matter what.
Now remember that Paul’s application of love is the relational context of the local church. Corinth, in particular, was marked by all manner of relational dysfunction.
Look back over verses 4-6, and see all the relationship-ending patterns of behavior love rejects, and all the relationship-building patterns love exemplifies.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–6, ESV)
Such a love can endure all things for the sake of the beloved. Enduring love can certainly employ wise boundaries, express correction, or ask others for help, but it does so without bitterness, spite, or closed-heartedness. Think of wayward children, immature brothers and sisters in Christ, unbelieving neighbors or coworkers, extended family dynamics, or just the person sitting nearest you wherever you’re reading this.
The purest love, capable of all endurance, can persist in patience despite all offense and seek kindness though none is ever returned. That’s a fitting answer to all of our anxieties, is it not?
Endurance of the Savior
This, then, becomes a precious gem of Christian sojourning. Think on it, God Himself is love itself (1 John 4:7-8). And in Christ, he has reconciled those who believe by the death and resurrection of his Son. Jesus loves you, and his love endures all things.
Beware presumption, as though Christ’s gracious love is an excuse to test his patience with sin. Remember that many who think themselves believers do not know the love of God (Matthew 7:21).
None of that diminishes the wideness of Christ’s love. Oh, that we would be meek-hearted believers who trust that Jesus Christ has more than enough love to forgive our sins! Return to him open-heartedly as long as you endure in this life.
He’s not anxious about completing the good work begun in you, for his love endures all things.