“Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
My Notes
What Does 1 Corinthians 13:7 Mean?
"Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." Four 'ALL THINGS' that define love's scope: love BEARS all (carries the weight without breaking), BELIEVES all (extends trust without cynicism), HOPES all (maintains expectation without despair), and ENDURES all (withstands pressure without quitting). The four qualities are comprehensive (all things), simultaneous (all four at once), and ACTIVE (each is a verb — bearing, believing, hoping, enduring). Love doesn't do these SOMETIMES. Love does these with ALL THINGS.
The phrase "beareth all things" (panta stegei — all things covers/bears/protects) means love COVERS: stegō means to cover, to protect by covering, to put a roof over. Love puts a roof over EVERYTHING — over the other person's failures, over the relationship's difficulties, over the community's weaknesses. The covering is protective. The bearing is structural. Love is the ROOF that keeps the weather out.
The four verbs PROGRESS: BEARS (carries the weight — passive endurance), BELIEVES (extends trust — active generosity), HOPES (maintains expectation — forward-looking confidence), ENDURES (withstands to the end — ultimate perseverance). The progression moves from CARRYING to TRUSTING to ANTICIPATING to LASTING. Each is more active than the last. Each carries the previous one forward.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Does your love bear, believe, hope, and endure ALL things — or do you have exceptions?
- 2.What does love 'covering' all things (like a roof) teach about protective love?
- 3.How does believing all things differ from naive trust?
- 4.What does enduring ALL things — without quitting, without exceptions — demand of your love?
Devotional
Beareth ALL things. Believeth ALL things. Hopeth ALL things. Endureth ALL things. Four comprehensive qualities. Four 'all things.' Four verbs that love performs WITHOUT EXCEPTION. Love carries everything. Love trusts everything. Love expects everything. Love outlasts everything. The 'all things' eliminates every exception.
The 'beareth all things' is love as a ROOF: the word stegō means to cover, to protect, to put a roof over. Love covers ALL things — the failures, the disappointments, the weaknesses, the sins that should break the relationship. The roof doesn't discriminate about what weather it blocks. It blocks ALL of it. Love covers all of it. The bearing is structural — love is the load-bearing wall that holds when everything else pushes.
The 'believeth all things' is love's GENEROUS TRUST: love extends trust without cynicism. The believing isn't naivete — it's the DELIBERATE CHOICE to extend trust until trust is proven wrong. Love gives the benefit of the doubt. Love assumes the best interpretation. Love believes in the other person's intentions until EVIDENCE (not suspicion) removes the trust.
The 'hopeth all things' is love's FORWARD-LOOKING confidence: love maintains expectation. Love sees the FUTURE when the present is bleak. Love hopes for the person who currently disappoints. The hoping is sustained, forward-looking, and resistant to despair. Love says: there's MORE coming. The present failure is not the final chapter.
The 'endureth all things' is love's ULTIMATE PERSEVERANCE: the word hypomonē (endurance) means STAYING UNDER the weight without leaving. Love doesn't quit when the bearing gets heavy, when the believing is tested, when the hoping is delayed. Love ENDURES — all things, to the end, without exception, without escape.
Does your love bear, believe, hope, and endure ALL things — or do you have exceptions?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Charity never faileth,.... It may fail as to the exercise of it, as other graces do; it may be left, but not lost; the…
Beareth all things - Compare the note at 1Co 9:12. Doddridge renders this, “covers all things.” The word used here…
(12.)
Beareth all things - Παντα στεγει. This word is also variously interpreted: to endure, bear, sustain, cover,…
The apostle gives us in these verses some of the properties and effects of charity, both to describe and commend it,…
beareth all things Suffers, Vulgate, and so Wiclif and Tyndale. See note on ch. 1Co 9:12, where the same word is used.…
Cross References
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