Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails… (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, NKJV).
Love Suffers Long
I love lists in Scripture, though they are often quite hard for me to memorize (Ga 5:16-26 comes to mind). I love them because they are simultaneously both rich and succinct. Needless to say the Spirit of God chooses His words very carefully, and each inspired list is comprised of precisely the thoughts and concepts God intends to convey. Here we are presented in almost PowerPoint format a comprehensive definition of love, that which we have come to call agape love, after the Greek word which is used.
Firstly, in English, I can love lists, love my children, love peanut butter and love God, all with the same word. Not so in Ancient Greek. In that language I would use different words that would more accurately reflect the variety and intensity of the emotion involved. Of the six Greek words I am aware of, the one here, agape, is by far the most noble, the most pure, the most comprehensive, and the most other-centered word for love ever invented. It is the kind of love that God has for the fallen world. It is the kind of love that drove Jesus to the Cross. It is the kind of love that purchased our redemption.
And the first characteristic of agape is long-suffering. One of the only two components of this list that are expressed in the positive, what love DOES and IS, versus the rest describing what love DOES NOT and IS NOT.
I don't like the other modern translations here, some of which substitute "love is patient" for "love suffers long", and here's why. I can be patient oftentimes without suffering anything, except perhaps impending impatience. Long-suffering on the other hand, is far more profound than mere patience in this context. It is a guarantee that the bestower of agape love will still love, and not change the intensity or commitment of that love, despite the fact that pain, even agony may be involved in that loving. To render that as simple "patience", is like saying that the sun is "kinda hot".
Long-suffering is exactly what God's love toward us is. It has to be because we are the source of perhaps His greatest pain. We are the cause of His sending His beloved Son to live as a Man and die an excruciating death on the Cross so that we could live.
There was no reason for Him to do that except agape love. There was no way He could have done that except for agape love. So please, no more trivializing of that kind of love by describing it as merely patient. It is so much more.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His GREAT LOVE with which He LOVED us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7, NKJV).
Love Suffers Long
I love lists in Scripture, though they are often quite hard for me to memorize (Ga 5:16-26 comes to mind). I love them because they are simultaneously both rich and succinct. Needless to say the Spirit of God chooses His words very carefully, and each inspired list is comprised of precisely the thoughts and concepts God intends to convey. Here we are presented in almost PowerPoint format a comprehensive definition of love, that which we have come to call agape love, after the Greek word which is used.
Firstly, in English, I can love lists, love my children, love peanut butter and love God, all with the same word. Not so in Ancient Greek. In that language I would use different words that would more accurately reflect the variety and intensity of the emotion involved. Of the six Greek words I am aware of, the one here, agape, is by far the most noble, the most pure, the most comprehensive, and the most other-centered word for love ever invented. It is the kind of love that God has for the fallen world. It is the kind of love that drove Jesus to the Cross. It is the kind of love that purchased our redemption.
And the first characteristic of agape is long-suffering. One of the only two components of this list that are expressed in the positive, what love DOES and IS, versus the rest describing what love DOES NOT and IS NOT.
I don't like the other modern translations here, some of which substitute "love is patient" for "love suffers long", and here's why. I can be patient oftentimes without suffering anything, except perhaps impending impatience. Long-suffering on the other hand, is far more profound than mere patience in this context. It is a guarantee that the bestower of agape love will still love, and not change the intensity or commitment of that love, despite the fact that pain, even agony may be involved in that loving. To render that as simple "patience", is like saying that the sun is "kinda hot".
Long-suffering is exactly what God's love toward us is. It has to be because we are the source of perhaps His greatest pain. We are the cause of His sending His beloved Son to live as a Man and die an excruciating death on the Cross so that we could live.
There was no reason for Him to do that except agape love. There was no way He could have done that except for agape love. So please, no more trivializing of that kind of love by describing it as merely patient. It is so much more.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His GREAT LOVE with which He LOVED us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7, NKJV).
