Everything Made Beautiful (01:00)
Hello friends, welcome back to Everything Made Beautiful. Today we are diving into the final episode in our series, The Better Way, a journey through 1 Corinthians 13. Now we've just passed Valentine's Day and if you've been with us for this series, you know we've been unpacking the hard, beautiful and downright challenging truths about love. What it is, what it isn't and why it's not for the faint of heart.

We started by facing the hard truth that without love, all our spiritual gifts, knowledge and sacrifices amount to nothing but noise. Then last week we wrestled with what love actually looks like in action. Patient, kind, humble, selfless. And today we're going to talk about love's endurance. What does it mean? Because if love isn't just a fleeting emotion, if it's the very foundation of our faith,

then it better be able to last through the hard stuff, you know? And Paul tells us that it does. So let's read today's scripture, which is 1 Corinthians 13, seven and eight. It says, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. Now don't know about you, but when I read that, I feel both comforted and also overwhelmed a little bit.

Because bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, that sounds like a tall order. And there are days when we don't want to bear anything, believe anything or hope anything. Some days it's hard enough just to get through the day, let alone love in a way that endures through suffering, betrayal, disappointment and loss. But this is exactly what Paul is getting at. Real love, God's kind of love,

doesn't have an expiration date. It doesn't wear out when things get tough. It doesn't fold when it's tested. It lasts. So let's start with that first phrase. Love bears all things. The Greek word for bears here means to cover, protect, or sustain. This is love that like creates a shelter.

It's the love that refuses to expose someone's weaknesses just to make ourselves look stronger. It's the love that stands in the gap when someone is struggling rather than walking away because it's inconvenient. Think about Jesus. He bore the weight of our sin on the cross. He carried our shame so we wouldn't have to. His love didn't collapse under pressure.

It took on the full force of our brokenness so that we could stand redeemed. That's the kind of love we're called to. Love that doesn't run when things get hard, but instead leans in. And I know sometimes it's like, yes, Shannon, thank you for the examples of Jesus who was perfect. It's gonna be kind of hard for me to measure up to that, you know? And I get that. So consider Joseph instead. Betrayed by his brothers,

Sold into slavery, falsely accused and imprisoned, Joseph had every reason to turn bitter, to not love. But instead, he bore the burden of his suffering with faith, the Bible tells us, trusting that God was still at work. When his brothers finally stood before him in need, Joseph didn't retaliate, he forgave. He covered them in grace, saying, you intended to harm me.

but God intended it for good. That's love bearing all things, choosing to protect rather than punish and to sustain rather than strike back. Who in your life right now needs you to bear with them rather than walk away? Are you covering others in love or are you quick to expose their failures? It's easy to bear with someone when they're apologetic.

When they're making progress, when they acknowledge their shortcomings. But what about when they don't? What about when the person who keeps making the same mistakes makes them over and over again? The friend who disappoints you over and over again? The family member whose words cut deep over and over again? Bearing with someone in love doesn't mean ignoring wrongdoing or enabling destructive behavior.

But it does mean refusing to give up on people the way the world does. It means seeing them through the lens of grace rather than through the filter of frustration. Ask yourself, do I offer people the same patience I expect from God? Am I quick to forgive or do I keep a record of wrongs?

Do I cover over others with love, protecting their dignity, or do I expose their weaknesses to make myself look better? Love that bears all things is willing to stay in the discomfort, to endure the waiting, to believe that God is still at work, even when change is slow, sometimes painfully so. And that kind of love, that's the kind of love that changes things. Next, Paul says love believes all things.

Now this doesn't mean love is naive or gullible. It doesn't mean we ignore red flags or enable toxic behavior. The Greek word here refers to trust. It's a love that gives the benefit of the doubt, that chooses to believe the best rather than assume the worst. But how often do we do the opposite? I know that this is my default. Jumping to conclusions, assigning motives,

Holding people captive to their worst moments. I'm so guilty of this. But biblical love doesn't keep score. It believes in redemption. It believes people can change. It believes God is still working even when we can't see it. Jesus modeled this beautifully too. When Peter denied him three times, Jesus didn't write him off. He restored him.

He saw Peter's past failure and saw past it to the man he would become. That's what love does. It sees possibility rather than permanence in a person's flaws. I think of the way that Jesus doesn't hold me accountable and hang over me my past failures. Instead, I'm clothed with the righteousness of Christ. It's what he's asking that I do.

for those in my life. And beyond Jesus, consider Barnabas. When Saul, who had been persecuting Christians, had a radical conversion and became Paul, the early believers didn't trust him. Understandably, honestly, who could blame them? This was the man who had hunted them down, thrown them in prison, and approved of their executions. But Barnabas saw something others didn't.

He saw the evidence of God's work in Paul's life. In Acts chapter nine, when everyone else was afraid and skeptical, Barnabas brought Paul before the apostles and vouched for him. He believed in God's power to transform a man the world had written off. And Barnabas' belief in Paul didn't just change one life.

It opened the door for one of the greatest missionaries and writers of the New Testament to step into his calling. That's what love does. It chooses to believe that God is at work, even when the past says otherwise. It sees potential where others see failure. It believes in redemption, even when no one else does. Love believes all things. So,

Do you assume the best about others or are you quick to assume the worst? Where in your life do you need to extend trust rather than suspicion? Trust is fragile. It can feel impossible to extend once it's been broken, especially when it's been broken again and again.

It's one thing to believe the best about someone in a moment of misunderstanding, but what about when their pattern of behavior gives you every reason to doubt them? What does it mean to believe all things when history tells you otherwise? Well, first, let's be clear. Believing all things does not mean ignoring wisdom. And that's not what I'm saying here. It doesn't mean allowing ourselves to be mistreated or manipulated.

Love is not blind, it is discerning. But it does mean that even when trust has been damaged, we don't close our hearts to the possibility of redemption. Think again about that story of Joseph. His brothers didn't just hurt him, they sold him into slavery. They stripped him of his home, his dignity, and his future. And yet years later,

When he stood before them as a powerful ruler in Egypt, he chose to see God's hand at work rather than hold on to his suspicion of his brothers. He believed that God could bring restoration and he acted in faith rather than bitterness. For us, believing all things might look like choosing not to define someone by their worst moment.

It might mean giving grace when our instinct is to hold a grudge. It might mean praying for a heart that is willing to trust again if and when genuine change is present. It means refusing to let cynicism rule our relationships even when we've been wounded. So ask yourself, am I leaving space for God to work in this person's life or have I written them off completely?

This is a big one. Love hopes all things. It holds on to expectation when everything else looks bleak. This is not wishful thinking. This is confidence in the character of God. There are moments in life where hope feels ridiculous. Maybe you're praying for a prodigal child and every sign says they're never coming home.

Maybe you're believing for healing, but the doctor's report says otherwise. Maybe you've poured your heart into a dream that seems to be crumbling. This is where hoping all things becomes an act of defiance against despair. Hope says, God, I don't see it, but I trust you. Love clings to hope because it knows that no situation is beyond God's redemption.

Love hopes because love knows the end of the story. Abraham is one of the greatest examples of what it means for love to hope all things. God promised him descendants as numerous as the stars, yet year after year passed and there was no child. By the time Isaac was born, Abraham and Sarah were well beyond childbearing years. But Romans 418 says,

against all hope Abraham in hope believed. His circumstances made no sense and there were some crazy decisions made in the process truly. The waiting was excruciating but love hopes because it trusts that God is faithful to his promises even when they seem impossible and Abraham is remembered ultimately as one who believed in

Hope. And then there's the father in Luke 15, the one in the story of the prodigal son. His younger son took his inheritance, squandered it all in reckless living, and ended up in a pigsty. Most people would have written him off, but the father? He never stopped hoping. He waited. He watched. He believed that restoration was possible. And when the son finally returned, he didn't meet him with skepticism. He ran, arms open.

ready to restore what was lost. We know what that parable is describing. We know that that is our heavenly father with his children. That's the kind of hope love clings to. Not naive optimism, but a deep unwavering belief that God is still writing the story. So where are you tempted to give up hope today?

How can you anchor your hope in God's faithfulness rather than your circumstances? Finally, Paul says, love endures all things. This is hupamuno in Greek, meaning to remain steadfast under trial, to persevere when everything in you wants to quit. Love doesn't just survive hardship, it stays, it fights, it refuses to give up.

This is the love of a parent who prays for a wayward child for decades. It's the love of a spouse who stays in the trenches when marriage gets hard. It's the love of a friend who keeps showing up when the world walks away. It's Jesus staying on the cross when he could have called down all those angels. Love endures. It doesn't tap out when it gets hard.

It doesn't say, I'm here as long as this is easy. I'm here as long as this is good for me. No, it says I'm here no matter what. Think about Job in scripture. If anyone had a reason to walk away, to give up, to say enough is enough, it was Job. He lost everything, his family, his wealth, his health.

His friends accused him, his wife told him to curse God and die. And yet, Job endured. Even when he didn't understand, even when the suffering felt unbearable, he refused to turn his back on God. Scripture says he did not charge God with wrong. His endurance wasn't passive, it was a choice to cling to God.

That's what love does. It endures when walking away would be easier. Though you slay me, Job says, still I will hope in you. Then there's Ruth. She had every reason to leave Naomi behind. Her husband was dead, her future uncertain, and yet she made a vow of enduring love. Where you go, I will go. And where you stay, I will stay.

Ruth's love wasn't about convenience, it was about commitment. She stayed when she didn't have to. She walked into an unknown future and through her endurance, God wove a story of redemption that would lead to the lineage of Jesus. And then of course we have Paul, the very person we're hearing from. Beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned, abandoned. He had every reason to quit.

But in 2 Corinthians 4, 8 and 9, he writes, we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed. That is the power of love that endures. It's a love that gets back up when life knocks you down and it will, and a love that says I will keep going because God is worth it.

this kind of love? This first Corinthians 13 love? We've said this is so much more than words at a wedding or a pretty plaque at the Christian bookstore or some Christian-ese sentiment that sounds good but doesn't quite hold up when things fall apart, get tough, or are sabotaged by grief and loss. It's supernatural. We don't manufacture or muster it up on our own. It's the love of God.

poured into us that allows us to bear, believe, hope, and endure when our human nature wants to quit.

So here's our challenge and our homework this week. Which of these do you struggle with most? Bearing, believing, hoping, enduring? Ask God to strengthen that area in your heart and life. Ask him to replace your fickle human love and fill you with his love so that you can love the way he does. Because real love never ends.

And that's the better way. I want to thank you so much for joining me for this series. If these episodes have challenged you, encouraged you, or made you think, I'd love for you to share them with a friend. And next week, I'm excited to interview my friend, Ribble, whose book, Love Me in the Waiting, caught my attention several months ago. The subtitle of her book is, Trusting God's Purpose When You're Longing for What's Next.

And I think this conversation will encourage you no matter what you're waiting for. And stay tuned, there's more coming soon on the Everything Made Beautiful podcast this spring. Until next time, let's be people who don't just talk about love, let's live love. And I hope, as always, you'll keep your eyes open for the ways God's making everything beautiful, including you. Bye bye.