An Enduring Love By: Joseph Parle, Ph.D. Academic Dean of the College of Biblical Studies Based on the work of Rich Thomson In The Heart of Man and the Mental Disorders
Transcript
Slide 1
An Enduring Love By: Joseph Parle, Ph.D. Academic Dean of the
College of Biblical Studies Based on the work of Rich Thomson In
The Heart of Man and the Mental Disorders
Slide 2
Hebrew Word Hesed (or Chesed)
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1 Corinthians 13:7 (NASB) [Love] bears all things, believes all
things, hopes all things, endures all things.
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Love Endures (1 Corinthians 13:7) Love bears as much as
possible as long as possible Love believes the best in people and
the ability of God to change people
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Relationship to Corinth Paul perceives himself as so
manifesting his love and concern for Corinth as the Other that this
love never tires of support, never loses faith, never exhausts
hope, never gives up. Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to
the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids,
Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000), 1058.
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1 Corinthians 4:14-15 (NASB) I do not write these things to
shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For if
you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have
many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the
gospel.
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Summary of Love Endures In 1 Cor. 13:7, the key word is
(panta), which may be translated adverbially as always This is what
love continually does. Thiselton (2000: 1056) notes that it
basically means that love has no limits, and he argues that a
negation best captures the idea: Love never tires of support, never
loses faith, never exhausts hope, never gives up. David E. Garland,
1 Corinthians, 619.
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Love Bears All Things According to the BDAG lexicon, the Greek
word for bear, , generally meant to cover something so that water
does not come in. Hence it can mean to pass over something in
silence or to bear up under difficulties.
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Love Bears All Things "Marriage is three parts love and seven
parts forgiveness of sin." - Laozi, Chinese philosopher (ca. 6th
century BC)
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Love Bears and Endures All Things The best interpretation of
the phrase would seem to be: Love doesnt give way to the pressure
of all things put upon it by others. To bear is to be able to take
any amount of pressure and not give way. To endure is to be able to
go on and on and not give up.
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Love Bears and Endures All Things Love does not give in
(bears), and love does not get to the end of its rope (endures).
And so the two together give a beautiful expression of the quality
of love. Love bears the weight of any situation without collapsing,
and it bears this weight as long as it needs to on and on,
steadfastly and never ceases.
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Love Endures All Things Endures all things ( ) refers to loves
ability to hold out during trouble and affliction (cf. 2 Cor. 6:4;
12:12; 2 Tim. 2:10). David E. Garland, 1 Corinthians, Baker
Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Baker Academic, 2003), 620.
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Love Believes All Things In other words, when love believes all
things there is not room for suspicion, distrust, or cynicism. Love
is not gullible, though, or nave. It is evident that the eyes of
love are not closed, for it has been seen that it rejoices not in
iniquity. Love is fully aware of wrongs done.
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Love Believes All Things Thus, it believes all things which are
not clearly controverted by established facts. In this phrase,
therefore, it is taught that love is not looking critically for
wrong doing or wrong motive in others. It prefers to believe the
best until there is no recourse but to accept the worst. And even
then love prefers to find good in another rather than dwelling on
the wrong.
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Love Hopes All Things The hope of love doesnt give up on
others. There is always a way. And isnt that the message of the
Gospel? There is always hope in any situation. Love does not write
someone off.
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Love Hopes All Things It doesnt seem like hell ever change! is
the kind of statement which one might hear from an individual who
has lost his hope in another and so has ceased to love. When one
lacks love his attitude toward others is pessimistic, despairing,
hopeless.
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Pauls Hope for the Corinthians As the relationship with Corinth
gets rockier, Paul keeps firing off letters to the Corinthians
because he does not believe that they are a hopeless case. He is
confident in God that they will reform. David E. Garland, 1
Corinthians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament
(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2003), 620.
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Love Endures Love bears as much as possible as long as possible
Love believes the best in people and the ability of God to change
people
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Our Wedding Vows (Husband to Wife) I promise to love and
cherish you, to honor and sustain you, in sickness as in health, in
poverty as in wealth, in bad times as in good. I will love you as
Christ loves the Church. I will be true to you in every way, in all
things and at all times, and divorce, whether mental, emotional,
spiritual, or physical, will never be an option to me.
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Our Wedding Vows (Wife to Husband) I promise to love and
cherish you, to honor and sustain you, in sickness as in health, in
poverty as in wealth, in bad times as in good. I will be submissive
and true to you in every way, in all things and at all times, and
divorce, whether mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical, will
never be an option to me.
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Application Activity (Husband to Wife) I promise to love and
cherish you, to honor and sustain you, in sickness as in health, in
poverty as in wealth, in bad times as in good. I will love you as
Christ loves the Church I will be true to you in every way, in all
things and at all times, and divorce, whether mental, emotional,
spiritual, or physical, will never be an option to me.
Slide 22
Application Activity (Wife to Husband) I promise to love and
cherish you, to honor and sustain you, in sickness as in health, in
poverty as in wealth, in bad times as in good. I will be submissive
and true to you in every way, in all things and at all times, and
divorce, whether mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical, will
never be an option to me.
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Application Activity for Church I promise to believe the best
in my fellow church members, to bear the worst in my fellow church
members, to speak well of them in their absence (especially if I do
not have the courage to tell them in person) and make my best
effort to love them as Christ loves them.