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THE KING’S BUSINESS
with the truth, which love always does. (12) Love “beareth all things.” There is nothing too hard for love to bear; insult, injury,Injustice. Our Lord Jesus Himself was the supreme revelation o f love, and when indignations were poured upon Him He. bore it all and prayed for those who did Him the most wrong, thus “leaving us an example' that we should follow in His steps.” ( 13)' Love “ believeth all things.” Love is always expectant o f the best of others, ready to belieye the best in spite o f every indication to the contrary. Many o f us are very proud o f our ability to see through men, and very proud o f the fact :that it' is impossible to “gull” usi. That, however, is not a thing to be proud of. It show» that we are lacking in love. Love is' not sharp-sighted to see faults in others. (14) Love “hopeth all things.” - No boy is so bad but a mother’s love, with eyes of hope, sees in him a future angel, and so it is with all true love. Even when it becomes impossible to believe because of the facts that cannot be doubted, revealing the badness o f men, we can still hope that they may be changed and become better men, and this love will do. Here love is helped by intelligence, for it is a matter o f obser vation that some o f the worst men the world has ever known have become the best, and the man who is the most vile today may become the most skintly tomor row. Selfishness scoffs at such a thought, but love cherishes it. (15) Love “ endur- eth all things.” When faith seems impos sible, and hope even is difficult, still we can endure, and love will endure all things. -Jesus and Stephen stand as illustrations (Luke 23:34; .Acts 7:60). Examined in the light o f Paul’s fifteen marks o f love, we would all do well to ask ourselves, have I love? If we have not, no matter what else we may possess, in God’s sight we are “nothing.” - vs. 8-10. "Charity (Love) never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail (be done away); whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish (be done) away.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. ( :) But (but) when that which is perfect is come, then (omit, then) that which is in part shall be done away.” In verses one to three we had love exalted: in verses - four to seven we had love described: from here tq the end o f the chap ter we have the permanence of love. Proph ecies, tongues, knowledge, all have their day, but love has eternity. God is Him self love (1 John 4:8) and love partakes o f His eternal nature. - Everything else fails sooner or later, but love never fails. The time is coming when prophecy shall.be done away, when it shall be swallowed Up in ful fillment. The time is coming when tongues shall cease. And the time is coming when our best knowledge shall be done away. The best knowledge that we have today is only partial, and the divinely inspired prophecy tells us but part o f what is to be. When the perfect knowledge comes in, our present partial knowledge shall become idle and be laid aside. When the event comes to pass o f which prophecy gave us only out lines, then prophecy will be rendered use-r less by fulfillment, which far surpasses the prophecy. What we know now is most precious, but it is only “in part,” and is nothing in comparison to what we do not know, and when the day comes that shall bring that which is perfect, our present attainment,-which is but partial, shall have become utterly useless. v. 11. “ When I was a child, 1 spake as a child, I understood (felt) as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became (now that I am become) a man, I (add, have) put away childish things.” All o f us now, even the wisest o f us, are but chil dren, buf a day is coming when we shall be men, knowing all things. In a compar ative sense some o f us are men now and if we are we should have laid away child ish things. But how many o f us even as grown men are holding bn to the things that belong to the childhood o f Christian experience. Many a professed believer today, after years o f supposedly Christian experience, is still talking like a tejiild, feel- X _ _
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