Love believes all things (v.7)

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

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Paul isn’t saying that we can believe anything we like! We only need to read his letters to see the importance he puts on what we believe about God and about Jesus. Rather he is describing a particular way in which love is demonstrated in relationships.

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Love will always seek to believe the best about people. It isn’t that love is naïve and blind. “But a loving disposition generously assume the best of people, instead of leaping to negative conclusions” (Sinclair Ferguson). Or, as the NIV translates it, “Love always trusts”. (Our English words trust, belief and faith are all the same word in Greek.)

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We see this in our relationship with God. Because we love him, we trust him. We are able to do that because he has shown he is trustworthy and will not let us down. We see it too in Jesus’s own trust in the Father, even on the cross. And because “all the promises of God find their Yes in Christ” (2 Cor.1:20) we too can be sure that our love for him, and the trust which springs from it, is not misplaced. With such trust, we then can keep on generously assuming the best of people.