We have agreed to read 1 Corinthians every day this week.  A King James version lies open on my nightstand, an English Standard version open on my desk, to remind me.  I keep coming back to one verse over and over: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (v.7).

Bears all things?  Some things no woman should have to bear.  But I know women that do, and keep forgiving, making excuses, staying on.  Is that what You really mean, Lord?  I keep looking and the verse before it answers, “Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth”….ah, so not everything.

This is not a love that picks up after the person wreaking havoc and keeps silent.  It faces things and looks them in the eye, grieves at the brokenness, calls it what it is, speaks truth.  This love finds joy in right-doing, with evil all around, pressing hard.  So what is it bearing?

I finally dig it out, and unearth a treasure.  The root word in the Greek means “to roof over, to cover with silence”.…the way this roof covers our home, protecting us from everything outside, joining with walls to define the space that is our family’s and no one else’s.  Love chooses to be patient with the flaws of the ones close to us, to carry the stresses of life’s ups and downs, to take them in as “ours”– something we will own together and work on together.  Love roofs over sin with repentance and reconciliation. Love covers over life’s problems by standing shoulder to shoulder.  Love doesn’t complain about doing for one another.  All is freely given and freely shared as we bear these burdens together as a family, in love.

Paul adds to it in another letter: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8 ESV)  When I choose to set my mind on these kinds of things it becomes much easier to bear with others, to cover over them with the roof of God’s love.  When my mind focuses here, love can believe that God will accomplish His purposes.  When I think about such things, love finds hope for the future.  When I look at these things, all that God has done for me, love can endure in this world.  Love bears all things…. covers over us like a roof against whatever will come.

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
(Colossians 3:12-14 ESV)