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Love ... hopes all things.
1 Corinthians 13:7
When we say, “I hope so” we do not usually mean the same thing as the New Testament does. We may be hoping for a white Christmas, even though the weatherman is predicting “sunny and cold with occasional showers”. That is not hope but wishful thinking.
What then is hope? Imagine a child catching a glimpse of his father sneaking something into the house—something that is difficult to carry and has two big wheels. If later you were to ask him, “What are you hoping for this Christmas?”, he would reply with a big grin, “I am hoping for a new bicycle!” “Do you think you’ll get it?” “Oh yes, I am sure!” That is hope in the biblical sense. It is being sure that you will receive something you don’t yet have.
So, when Paul says, “Love ... hopes all things”, he is not just describing a glass-half-full kind of person who always “hopes for the best”. He means somebody who believes the promises of God and is waiting for them to be fulfilled—no matter what.
Paul’s point is this: heaven is a world of love. Love incarnate—Jesus Christ—came down to earth at Christmas. He did so to stoop further down—to the humiliating death on the cross for our sin and its shame (yes, he died for our shame too). But he stooped to conquer. He rose again in triumph over sin, death, and Satan.
When Paul says, “Love ... hopes all things”, he is not just describing a glass-half-full kind of person who always “hopes for the best”. He means somebody who believes the promises of God and is waiting for them to be fulfilled.
Since he did all this for us, his resurrection is the guarantee of the resurrection of all who belong to him. Paul had an impressive way of putting this to the Corinthians. They were accusing him of vacillating—was he coming to visit them or wasn’t he? He replied that he was a follower of Christ. His yes meant yes, just like Jesus! For “all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Corinthians 1:15-24).
The incarnation, the birth of the Christ-child is, as we have seen, the ultimate “Yes” to the promises of God. But why?
First, because it means God has kept his oldest promise, recorded in Genesis 3 v 15. There would be ongoing conflict—between the seed (or descendants) of the serpent and the seed of the woman; and then, ultimately, between one Seed of the woman and the serpent himself. The older artists who pictured the infant Jesus with a serpent being crushed underneath his foot understood this well. God has kept that promise.
And if God has kept his oldest promise, can we not also be sure that he will keep all his promises? That is the hope of love.
But the incarnation not only means the longest-standing promise of God has been fulfilled. Second, it means that the costliest promise of God has been fulfilled. God keeping his promise meant his Son would suffer and die.
Paul draws the logical conclusion: since this is the case, we can be sure God will withhold nothing from us that is for our ultimate good. If God has kept his major promise by giving his Son for you and to you, you can be sure he will keep every promise he has made.
And if God has kept his oldest promise, can we not also be sure that he will keep all his promises? That is the hope of love.
That is why his love is the foundation not only for faith but also for hope. And that hope lasts; it will never fail. It is a hope that we can hold on to even when we are suffering, even when life seems to be unravelling at the seams, even when our worst nightmares are coming true. We can still have hope, because God kept his biggest promise, his oldest and costliest promise, when Love came down at Christmas.
Today’s blog is an excerpt from Love Came Down at Christmas by Sinclair Ferguson. This advent devotional on 1 Corinthians 13 reflects on the ultimate source of authentic, divine, and transforming love—Jesus Christ
