Love Bears All Things

Love Bears All Things
Love Covers All Things
Love Contains All Things

Love is patient, love is kind, and does not envy, does not brag, and is not arrogant, is not rude, is not selfish, is not easily provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.I Corinthians 13:4-8a
What was the last thing we talked about concerning love? Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth.

How do we put this into practise? When we see someone we love in a sin we must help them and correct them because love is not happy when we see someone we love falling into the hands of satan.

So what comes after this? Love bears all things.

What do you understand by this?

NAS, NKJ, KJ, DBY, NRSV, “love bears all things”
New living translations, “love never gives up”
NIV, “love always protects”
BBE, “undergoing all things”
MJKV, “quietly covers all things”
French, “excuses all things”
WNT & MNT, “it knows how to be silent”

The Greek word for bears is STEGO which means to roof over, to cover with silence. We can understand the word to mean bearing, sustaining, covering, concealing and containing.

“Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins.” I Peter 4:8 (the word covers is the same word used in I Cor 13)

Love contains or keeps everything in like a container keeps liquid and nothing leaks out. Love conceals everything that should be concealed and betrays no secret. A person under the influence of this love does not make the sins or mistakes or imperfections of others the topic of conversation. If you love someone you are able to cover them and retain the knowledge to yourself.

When you see errors and faults in others, because of love you do not notice and if you do, you will be willing to conceal them and bear with them patiently.

“If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ” I Corinthians 9:12

Many times we feel that need to tell others what someone has done to us. Sometimes it is very difficult to keep silent when someone has hurt us. I know that there was one time in my life when someone hurt me more than anyone could. I was really betrayed by someone who to my face told me they loved me and wanted to be my friend but behind my back that person was doing something that only an enemy could do and each time I would forgive her and she’d do it again. People really thought this person was righteous and I had the truth and I wanted to revenge myself so much. I knew if I told people what she did to me no one could be her friend after that. But for more than two years I have kept that a secret between myself and God and although there are times I’d love to tell someone, I know that I must keep quiet.

Because of love we must not make public someone else’s sin to avenge ourselves and because we do not want to hinder the gospel as written in I Cor 9:12.

Sometimes we don’t want to tell people because of revenge but simply because we need to talk to someone. When someone has done something against you, it is hard to keep that to yourself because you feel you need support. But love bears this and does not tell. You must hold fast like a water tight vessel, contain yourself in silence and keep yourself from giving into what selfishness would prompt under personal hardship.

Also there are times when we just want to complain to others. Sometimes it’s hard as a wife to serve your husband and so you complain to your friend how he is always messy. Or sometimes we joke about others. There is a lady at work who is very scary and many people make jokes behind her back and I used to laugh but one day I remembered the Word of God and I decided not to laugh and slowly people don’t tell me jokes about others anymore. Gossip is very enjoyable and sometimes we think that it is ok when we tell someone who doesn’t know that person. Eg. A lady at work dresses like this… and we think it’s ok because we don’t mention their name but we are still talking negatively about that person and God cannot be happy when we diss His creation.

Some times we want to say negative things about others so we can feel good about ourselves. If I tell Michelle how lazy Hayley is then I will be exalted. But for love, we must avoid this.

John Wesley, “love covereth all things” whatever evil the lover of mankind sees, hears, or knows of anyone, he mentions it to none, it never goes out of his lips.

Spurgeon, “[love] swallows down many pills which would be very bitter in the mouth if she were so foolish as to chew them.”

The greek word for all is PAS and means all, any, every, the whole lot, whatsoever, whosoever, thoroughly.

So love enables us to bear wrongs without returning evil for evil. It gives us the ability to keep what has been entrusted to us by someone to ourselves and ensures that when we see someone’s faults that we will not tell them to anyone except of course God in prayer.

But we also have to remember that love also does not rejoice in unrighteousness so when we see our brother or sister in sin or in a mistake we must help them to understand so we must talk to them, but only to them.

Know also that love is not self-control. Love is when you feel in your heart and ask your self, how would I feel if I was that person and people talked about me. Love is also having mercy for them and pity. Love grows up by looking only at the positive points and if you only look at the negative points then your love will be destroyed.

So next time you feel that you need to talk about someone, ask yourself if you really love that person because if you do, you will keep silent for the sake of the gospel.

By Hayley Boud