Love Suffers Long

1 Corinthians 13:4, “Love suffers long…”

One of the most commonly known chapters in the Bible is 1 Corinthians 13. It is commonly known as “the love chapter” because, well, its entire focus is on love. It is a popular chapter for good reason, and it gives us a true understanding of what true, biblical, Christ like love is. However, I remember a few years ago when I was studying through 1 Corinthians when I got to chapter thirteen, and I realized that I had heard and read very little about 1 Corinthians 13. I still cannot recall ever hearing a sermon preached on this chapter, or reading a book focused on this chapter.

I began to dig into the chapter and try to really understand what true, Christlike love is, and I realized the best way to do that would be to go back to Christ. Look at how He has shown Himself to be loving. I found as I did this that each description of love began to make more sense to me. It helped to see a description of love and then look to the One who is our example of this love, “for God is love” (1 John 4:8).

There is of course so much that could be written about the love of God. I do hope though that this can at least be a stepping stone for you towards diving deeper into the unfathomable love of God. So without delaying it any longer, lets dive in to the first description of love, “Love suffers long.”

In verse 4, Paul writes that love suffers long, is kind, and does not envy. The best way to understand love is to look at Christ and replicate what He has done and what He continues to do. He suffered long in a very real way when he was scourged, beaten, mocked, and nailed to a cross. All of that pain and suffering He went through was out of love. He loved us enough to die on the cross for all of our sins. He died for past sins, present sins, and future sins. I like to make it more personal than that. He died for every one of my past sins. I have a long, long list of past sins. It is devastating sometimes to think about the sinful, wicked things that I have done. I have walked away from God, choosing sin over obedience to Him, unfortunately for extended periods of time, and yet He still suffered long for me.

Something I find even more incredible about the love of God is that He still shows His love by suffering long for my present sins. By the grace of God, I may not be turned completely away from God, but I would be lying if I said I don’t sin every day. At the time of writing this I cannot truly say that I have loved Him with all my heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37). I cannot truly say that I have been joyful and have not complained in my heart (1 Thessalonians 5:16, 18). I cannot truly say that I have been holy (1 Peter 1:16). These are only the sins I am willing to admit to having done today. And yet, the truth is, that Jesus Christ died for even those sins that I have done today. There are no sins that He has overlooked or was unwilling to die for. And every day He continues to suffer long for my disobedience and sinfulness because He loves me for a reason I will never understand whilst here on earth.

Of course, He also has suffered for my future sins. I don’t know what those sins are. They should be lesser than past sins if I am growing in Him, but yet the undeniable truth is I will still sin, and sin, and sin (who else is excited for heaven where we will no longer ever sin again?). Again, despite knowing my future sins, He loves me. He suffers long for me. He died for me. This has nothing to do with what I profit Him, for I profit Him nothing. He does not need me, He does not need anybody, it is purely because He loves me that He suffers long for me. I have already said it several times, but that is unfathomable love! May we never take for granted this love that He has for wretched, sinful people like us!

We need to see and appreciate this example of long suffering and then replicate it. There are various ways God is and will try and grow us by producing circumstances that will enable us to grow in longsuffering. There will likely be people in our lives that we will need to constantly forgive. Not to be foolish, but to suffer long because of our love for them. We are unable to suffer as long as God, but we need to be as longsuffering as the Lord desires. Someone who causes us to have to suffer long is not someone who loves us, but we are commanded to love our enemies and do good to them, heaping coals of fire on their head (Romans 12:20).

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