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; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

1 Corinthians 13:7 says that “love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” In our 9th week of Relationship Goals, Pastor Humphreys Mkandawire from Flood Lilongwe brings us to the reality that it is impossible to bear or believe all things until you fully entrust yourself to Jesus. For it is Jesus, he reminds us, who first loved us and who now gives us the ability to endure all the difficulties that come with loving other people.

The kind of love that Paul invites us into is a reflection of the way that Jesus loves. And while we are wise to ask “will this be safe for me?” and “can I trust this person?” when we consider entering into any kind of loving relationship, the reality is that the Jesus kind of love is NOT safe. Jesus did not hold himself back from loving us until we shaped up and became a people who were going to receive him joyfully and carefully. Jesus loved us to the point of his death, even though he fully expected us to betray him. This is our challenge. It is a challenge that we cannot meet on our own. However, when we give ourselves over fully to the care of JESUS, we are able to trust that our souls will be taken care of no matter what hurts we incur in the process of loving. Love, the love that flows from Jesus and allows and empowers us, will always hold us well.

Next Steps:

  1. Who in your life do you need to change your attitude towards?
  2. Who in your life do you need to intentionally show love?
  3. Take a moment each day this week to entrust yoruself to Jesus so you can love others better.

The reality of life is there is no life apart from relationships. Your relationships might be with stuff, not people, but your life is relating itself to STUFF. So our heart and our goal in this series is to just be at a place where we ask the hard questions, we get into the space of trying to understand what is love really like. Now when you get into scripture, scripture has a lot of stuff to say about love. So we are are looking at some few amazing things that God has said in his word in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 of what love is.

Catch up on earlier Relationship Goals sermons: Week 1 , Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 7, Week 8