Persistent: Love endures all things
My high school soccer coach confided in us one year that we were a younger, less experienced team that the other teams in our league. Because of that, he had decided that we would be the most well-conditioned team so that, long after our more talented opponents would tire, we would still be running strong. That meant we would face a grueling pre-season in the dry summer heat as we ran, and ran, and ran some more. The suffering of discipline produced a great benefit, shaping us into a formidable team forged through physical and mental endurance.
Yesterday, perhaps like you, I woke up to a strange post-apocalyptic morning yesterday; the sickly, brown-yellow light filtered through the mixture of fire smoke and morning fog. It seems that on every front we are experiencing mounting pressure: medical, social, emotional, political, and now, meteorological. The idea of “keep on keepin’ on” can seem an impossibility when the external pressures of life seem unending, with little respite and constrained comfort. How do we persevere when the light at the end of a tunnel may just be another fire starting?
In his rich portrait in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul includes an overlooked characteristic of love: it “endures all things” (v.7). Agapé is the Greek word used to indicate self-giving, other-benefiting love. It’s an act of the mind because it perceives another person as an object of care. It is an act of the emotions because it is motivating by deep compassion or affection. And it is an act of the will because agapé results in action to benefit another person out of one’s own resources. In describing the God of history, John says that God is agapé (1 John 4:8) . At his core, God is revealed in history—especially in the person of Jesus—as outgoing and other-focused .
In writing “love endures all things”, what did Paul have in mind? In Romans 5:8, Paul contrasts the agapé of humans with God’s kind of agapé: “God shows his own, off-the-charts agapé in this unique way: that while we were still God-hating rebels, Christ died for us”. And so we need to look to the cross to see the clearest, most breath-taking example of persistent love. The author of Hebrews encourages his audience to “consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself” (12:3) as a motivation to endure the continual, monotonous, wearying struggle with sin and suffering, “so that you may not grow weary and lose heart”.
For the God who is agapé, love is an endurance game. Only by enduring persistent hardship is God-level agapé put on display. In the Old Testament, God’s agape was always there, enduring the monotonous cycles of rebellion and rejection by his covenant partners. But the magnitude of his commitment to them and to the world was demonstrated when the Eternal Son entered human history and submitted to personal rejection, malicious slander, mocking hatred, and vicious torture at the hands of his own people and the Roman machine. He did not call out for divine reprieve (Matthew 26:53). He took no anesthetic (Mark 15:23). He did not curse or revile his slanderers (1 Peter 2:23). He endured until he had accomplished his act of love.
How does considering Christ’s endurance through suffering on our behalf help us in the midst of our own suffering and challenges?
If you are anything like me, you want to avoid suffering whenever possible. Avoiding pain is often a more important factor in our decision-making process than maximizing pleasure. But that’s only when we view our suffering as being of no benefit:
The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.
—Hebrews 12:6b-7a
The continuing shelter-in-place conditions, the social unrest, the political uncertainty and the clouds of smoke from the fires in our state are not the only pressures you might be facing. They can only amplify a trying marriage or parenting season, loneliness and depression, or financial or health concerns. How can you endure?
First, enduring does not mean pretending everything is all right. On the cross, Jesus quoted several Psalms of lament (e.g. Psalm 22).
Second, Paul says that God-sized self-giving, other-focused love endures. Taking our eyes off of ourselves we look outward, showing compassion for others because Christ endured for us. When we are empowered by the Spirit of Christ rather than just a hopefully-optimistic attitude we are able to endure far beyond our capacities.
Third, remember the Father’s commitment to you. We “don’t grow weary in doing good” (i.e. endure) by remembering that the Father is with us and he uses all suffering, all pain, all circumstances for our good. He wants to make us shine with unstoppable love toward others in the same way his Beloved Son did on the cross (Romans 8:28-29).
Forth, despite appearances, these are “light and momentary trials”. They are dwarfed by the certain glory secured by Christ on our behalf (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). Recalibrate your assessment of these hardships by considering how great that glory must be: a life together with God free from death, disease, hatred, natural disasters, and broken relationships and full of goodness, enjoyment, and peace (Romans 8:18).
Fifth, none of this suffering separates you from the agapé of God. (Romans 8:31-39) Through Jesus’s act of love on the cross, God’s love has endured all and will endure all for you. It’s a done deal.