Love Believes All Things

1 Corinthians 13:7

“Love…believes all things”

The Greek word for believes in this verse is pisteuei. This exact same word occurs only three times in Scripture.[1] The other two occurrences are in Romans 14:2, which was written by Paul, and in John 12:44, where Jesus states, “He who believes in me, believes not in Me, but in Him who sent Me.” It simply means to trust or believe in. But why are we then commanded to believe in all things? Doesn’t that just make us gullible? Or like robots who cannot think for themselves?

In verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 13 we see four statements about love. “Bears all things” and “endures all things” are similar while “believes all things” and “hopes all things” are similar with both statements focusing on trust. Should we trust everyone and everything they say? Of course not! We are supposed to seek wisdom and discernment (Proverbs 2:3-4) which includes deciphering men’s words and actions. What type of trust, or, belief, is this verse referring to then?

I think it would be helpful to look at the two verses I mentioned that contain the word pisteuei as well. In Romans 14:2, Paul is speaking of those believers who pisteuei that they can eat all meat. In contrast, Paul mentions the “weak” man who does not believe he should eat all things. This first man (which I will refer to as the strong man) believed that, now that Christ had died as our sacrificial lamb once and for all, that they did not have to follow the rituals of the past. They could now eat meat and anything else God had originally ordained as unclean. Their belief, or pisteuei was an absolute faith and trust that what they were told was true. That Christ’s death was enough. The weak man lacked faith and lacked pisteuei because he still believed that he had to obey the eating standards of the Mosaic law.

In John 12:44 we see Jesus say that those who pisteuei in Him pisteuei in God the Father. This was not a question of if they believe but that they do believe. This is a belief of someone who is saved and on their way to heaven. It is a belief in something that not all saved individuals got to see (the death and resurrection of Christ) and therefore it is faith. This pisteuei is used positively just as it is used positively in Romans 14:2 regarding the strong man. It also is used to describe faith and trust in what has been told to us. This is not a surface level trust, but a trust that is unwavering and absolute.

Jesus had this belief. He knew that God the Father had sent Him for a purpose. He knew that His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead was going to give the world a chance of salvation. This belief and trust was shown through His love. The type of love that believes all things.

We are commanded to follow suit, to love absolutely. All believers have shown this pisteuei when we trusted Christ as our Savior. To trust you must have a form of love, even if it is not evident to you at the time or as strong as you would like it to be, there must be love. To trust your spouse, parent, child, or friend, you must love them. It is no different from God. When you trust Him you love Him. Your pisteuei in Him shows you love Him. In contrast, when you don’t trust Him it shows that you lack love for Him. God tests us because He wants us to trust Him and, ultimately to love Him. He wants to help us obey the first and greatest commandment.

[1] https://biblehub.com/greek/pisteuei_4100.htm

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