Love Hopes All Things

1 Corinthians 13:7

“Love…hopes all things”

“Hope” is not a phrase I would commonly associate with love. When I think of the word “hope” it makes me think of being positive but doubtful. It is difficult to associate love with doubt. Love is consistent, it is strong and firm. It does not fail (spoiler alert: we see that in verse 8). How then can we say that love hopes all things?

The Greek word for hope that is used here is elpizei which comes from the root word elpis. The definition of elpis is “to expect, or confide.”[i] Therefore, the word for hope that we use is not the same word being used in this verse. This is not a hope of doubting positivity but of expectation.

What the Bible is telling us then is that loves hopes expectantly in all things. Love is positive. Love trusts what they are being told. Love expects to be told the truth, love expects for those they trust to come through. Obviously we need to be careful of who and what we trust in. We need to seek godly wisdom (James 1:5). But when we have that wisdom, love does not doubt or hesitate. Love does not think cynically.

Jesus, who was filled with all wisdom, showed us in Luke 22:39-46 how to love by hoping expectantly. Jesus knew His time was come to surrender to the Jews and to be murdered. He knew the only hope we have of an eternal life in heaven was and is dependent on His death on the cross. But He was human, and the night that lay ahead, one filled with being mocked, beaten, and scourged, was one He did not long to take part in. However, through the power of His love, He hoped expectantly for what He knew would come out of His death. He did not waiver, He loved. He did not doubt what He knew was true, but He hoped expectantly for what was to come.

That is the key, knowing the truth and trusting in it. We must show our love by trusting the truths we are told. We must not waiver in our love by not having hopeful expectations.

This is a more difficult aspect of love to understand, but I want to use an example that I hope will help. Think of the one you love the most. For me, it is my wife. For you it could be a spouse, parent, or friend. How would you feel if this loved one doubted you. Even though you showed them time and again that you came through, they still doubted. Perhaps you told them that you would do something for them and they laughed. Do you feel loved in that moment? I certainly wouldn’t. I want my wife to trust me and expect me to come through for her.

The problem with that example is we are all human. We do fail. Our expectations are dashed at times, our trust can be broken. Yes, we should always love our spouse even when they fail, or our parents or friends when they mess up, but it is certainly harder to do so after they do. God, though, can always be trusted. Even when He leads us through the valleys, we can trust Him. We have no reason to doubt Him. We should only ever hope expectantly in Him because He never fails.

Why, if He never fails, and only ever thinks about our good, do we lack trust in Him? Why do we not have that hopeful expectation that He will carry us through dark times? Our challenge is to battle the doubts and fears that the devil plants in our minds and hope expectantly, and we do that by loving Him. The answer to growing in out trust or hopeful expectation of Him in all things is by loving Him. He will never let us down, so let’s start to trust Him. Let’s start to love with hopeful expectation.

[i] Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, https://biblehub.com/greek/1679.htm

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