Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Parallel translations
- WEB bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
- KJV Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
- BSB It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
- NKJV bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
- NASB it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Love bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. It is resilient and steadfast in every circumstance.
Overview
Paul closes his description with four sweeping statements of love's endurance. Love covers and supports, trusts and hopes, and perseveres through hardship rather than giving up. This is not naive but a determined, hopeful commitment to others that mirrors the patient, enduring love God shows His people in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 27
- 1 Pet 4:8And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins.
- 1 Cor 13:4Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,
- 1 Pet 2:24who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.
- 2 Tim 2:24The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but be gentle towards all, able to teach, patient,
- Prov 10:12Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs.
- Gal 6:2Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
- 1 Cor 9:12If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ.
- Song 8:6–7Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a very flame of Yahweh.
- 2 Tim 4:5But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.
- 2 Tim 2:3–10You therefore must endure hardship, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
- Jas 1:12Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.
- Ps 119:66Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.
- 2 Th 1:4so that we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your perseverance and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure.
- Rom 15:1Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
- Matt 10:22You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.
- 2 Tim 3:11persecutions, and sufferings: those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. The Lord delivered me out of them all.
- Luke 7:44–46Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head.
- Gen 29:20Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her.
- Job 13:15Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.
- Luke 19:4–10He ran on ahead, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way.
- 2 Cor 11:8–12I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I might serve you.
- 1 Cor 9:18–22What then is my reward? That, when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News.
- Heb 13:13Let us therefore go out to him outside of the camp, bearing his reproach.
- Rom 8:24For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees?
- Num 11:12–14Have I conceived all this people? Have I brought them out, that you should tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which you swore to their fathers?’
- Luke 7:37–39Behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that he was reclining in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of ointment.
- Deut 1:9I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you myself alone.
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Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 13:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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