Originally Aired On: Friday, August 18, 2006
A DISCUSSION ON 1 CORINTHIANS 13:7 “LOVE BELIEVES ALL THINGS”
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Friday, August 18, 2006
"Love believes all things (1 Corinthians 13:7).
IDEA: Love trusts.
PURPOSE: To help listeners see the difference trust can make in other people's lives.
In 1 Corinthians 13:7, Paul says that love believes all things, or as another translation puts it, love trusts. That sounds incredibly naive.
I. What does Paul mean that"love trusts"?
Love isn't suspicious.
Some people can see more evil through a keyhole than most folks can see through an open door.
There is about love a certain naiveté.
Love gives other people the benefit of the doubt.
We do for others what we want others to do for us. We want other people to put what we do in the best possible light.
Even when I do wrong, I hope you'll try to understand that this is an incident and not an evidence of character.
If there are two explanations, if you love someone, you don't immediately choose the worst one.
II. When we expect the best of others, we often get it.
A school where teachers mistook locker number for I.Q. scores caused grades to go up.
Have you ever had someone give you the benefit of the doubt, or trust you so that it made a difference in your life?
III. What basis do Christians have for believing the best about others?
How do you balance trust with reality?
There is the ministry of God's Spirit in their lives, the sense that God is at work in the other person.