Love bears all things (v.7)

“Love bears all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:7

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The word here translated “bears” literally means to cover – in its noun form it’s the word used for the roof of a house. A roof provides protection from the elements. Likewise, love protects and “covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Pet.4:8).

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Love bears or puts up with things. Earlier in this letter, Paul says “we put up with anything” for the sake of the Gospel (1 Cor.9:12). The verb there is the same one used here: “love bears all things”. Love means that we put up with the things which people do to us that could cause us to be offended and reject them, just as Jesus loves us despite all the wrong that we do to him.

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Supremely he showed his love for us by bearing our sins in his body on the cross (1 Pet.2:24). By his death, he provided a covering to protect us from God’s judgement on our sins. That’s why love came down at Christmas. And when that same love reigns in our own hearts, then we too will bear with the things which people do that wrong us, knowing that in love Christ has born so much more for us.