It Starts Small

When we combine all of verse seven according to the Greek words we have learned, we could translate 1 Corinthians 13:7 to say:

Love protects, shields, guards, covers, conceals, and safeguards people from exposure; love strains forward with all its might to believe the very best in every situation; love always expects and anticipates the best in others and the best for others; love never quits, never surrenders, and never gives up.

Then Paul says in verse 8: Love never ends. Other translations say it never faileth (KJV) or lasts forever (NLT). The Greek word used for ends is piptō and means to perish, to come to an end, disappear, cease.

I am not sure about you, but as you read Paul’s letters, you get a sense of his voice. I can not help but ponder as he wrote this, that He paused with a sigh and a smile. He loved the lost and he loved his fellow brothers and sisters. He write with compassion and he’s teaching us love.

The Greek word here gives the idea of something that never ends. The more you practice and use it, the more it just keeps coming in. Think of it in terms of a boat with a hole in it. As much as you are scooping the water out, it’s pouring in just as fast. There is NO end to the love of God and for us, there should never be an end to our love for all of humanity. Not just the ones we get along with, but those who are our enemy.

Paul says, love will not quit. Despite all the obstacles that stand in the way; love that refuses to give heed to what would turn off anything less, but keeps right on. God’s love is like that, he says. It will never quit, even though for the best interest of another person it may temporarily turn its back, or appear to. God does this with us, as a mother eagle does with its young. To kick it out of the nest may look cruel, but the eagle knows that is the only way the young will learn to fly. It braves the wrath of its young in order to force it into maturity.

Love will do that too: God’s love will, and true love will, but even then it is hovering there, waiting and watching to see lest disaster strike, ready to help in time of need. This is surely what Paul is describing here. He contrasts this quality of love with the things that will not last, the things that do quit, the things that pass away.

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