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).
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If Wishes Were Fishes We'd All Cast Nets
Monk, the genius TV detective emotionally devastated after the bombing death of his wife, is known for several iconic sayings. One of them is, "I hate hope."
The reason, of course, is because hope often disappoints. As a friend of mine recently posted, "the best way to avoid disappointment is to not expect anything from anyone." It makes sense from a human perspective. The more you hope, the more profound the disappointment potential. And sometimes unfulfilled hope is worse than hopelessness.
So then, why does Paul in this passage describe agape love as something that "hopes all things"? Is it because he wants us to become immune to disappointment? Or maybe he just thinks that anticipatory disappointment is good for the soul? If hope is painful, then why hope?
To understand this fully, a distinction has to be made between Biblical hope and the everyday kind of hope that is pretty much synonymous with wishing. I can hope that it doesn't rain today, but because that hope is not based on any sort of meaningful guarantee, I'm really just wishing it doesn't rain. In that sense then, that brand of hope is fraught with danger. Best to just stick your head out the door and see how wet it gets rather than waste any energy on the wish.
Biblical hope is not about wishing at all. Instead, it is a sure and certain expectation of something that has not yet occurred, and for which there is no equivalent empirical test. I can't pop my head into eternity and see what the weather is like. I can nonetheless have that hope without the slightest danger of disappointment because the source of that hope is the unequivocal promise of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Being who has taken incomprehensibly extreme measures to demonstrate His love for me. It is hope not based on whimsy or pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by wishful thinking. It is hope based on the solemn oath sworn by He who is the author and maintainer of all realms of existence. It is hope based on an everlasting covenant signed in blood on a hill in Judea two millennia ago. That is the hope agape love is focused upon. That is the hope that is intended to sustain us in this life no matter what other disappointments have or will occur.
To embrace that hope requires trust in its guarantor. To obtain that trust requires time spent in fellowship. To begin that fellowship requires surrender of self-reliance and self-will. Monk hates hope, because the only source of hope he knows is in this life, and being a genius, he understands how frail and fickle such hope is. Agape love encourages hope because its source is the faithfulness of God. There is no comparison between the two.
Hope is important. So important that it is mentioned in the New Testament no less that 61 times. Each instance is instructive, but I will leave you with just this one:
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5, NKJV).
--
If Wishes Were Fishes We'd All Cast Nets
Monk, the genius TV detective emotionally devastated after the bombing death of his wife, is known for several iconic sayings. One of them is, "I hate hope."
The reason, of course, is because hope often disappoints. As a friend of mine recently posted, "the best way to avoid disappointment is to not expect anything from anyone." It makes sense from a human perspective. The more you hope, the more profound the disappointment potential. And sometimes unfulfilled hope is worse than hopelessness.
So then, why does Paul in this passage describe agape love as something that "hopes all things"? Is it because he wants us to become immune to disappointment? Or maybe he just thinks that anticipatory disappointment is good for the soul? If hope is painful, then why hope?
To understand this fully, a distinction has to be made between Biblical hope and the everyday kind of hope that is pretty much synonymous with wishing. I can hope that it doesn't rain today, but because that hope is not based on any sort of meaningful guarantee, I'm really just wishing it doesn't rain. In that sense then, that brand of hope is fraught with danger. Best to just stick your head out the door and see how wet it gets rather than waste any energy on the wish.
Biblical hope is not about wishing at all. Instead, it is a sure and certain expectation of something that has not yet occurred, and for which there is no equivalent empirical test. I can't pop my head into eternity and see what the weather is like. I can nonetheless have that hope without the slightest danger of disappointment because the source of that hope is the unequivocal promise of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Being who has taken incomprehensibly extreme measures to demonstrate His love for me. It is hope not based on whimsy or pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by wishful thinking. It is hope based on the solemn oath sworn by He who is the author and maintainer of all realms of existence. It is hope based on an everlasting covenant signed in blood on a hill in Judea two millennia ago. That is the hope agape love is focused upon. That is the hope that is intended to sustain us in this life no matter what other disappointments have or will occur.
To embrace that hope requires trust in its guarantor. To obtain that trust requires time spent in fellowship. To begin that fellowship requires surrender of self-reliance and self-will. Monk hates hope, because the only source of hope he knows is in this life, and being a genius, he understands how frail and fickle such hope is. Agape love encourages hope because its source is the faithfulness of God. There is no comparison between the two.
Hope is important. So important that it is mentioned in the New Testament no less that 61 times. Each instance is instructive, but I will leave you with just this one:
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5, NKJV).
