8Love never fails. [simple_tooltip content=’1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.’](1 Corinthians 13:1-13)[/simple_tooltip]
How could Paul say this? In his day hatred, selfishness, oppression, and many other evils prevailed as much or more than today. Paul experienced the sting of persecution and had administered it to others before his conversion. Certainly, he had heard of the Christians who were burned at the stake and thrown to the lions by the Romans. In A.D. 70 the Romans completely destroyed Jerusalem, plundering everyone and everything in the city. Would Paul have changed what he wrote if these things had taken place before this letter to the Corinthians? Certainly not!
God is love [simple_tooltip content=’He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.’](1 John 4:8)[/simple_tooltip], and He never fails. In our single frame view, it may appear that God doesn’t always prevail, but that’s not so. For example, take the persecution of the Christians in Paul’s day. The 20/20 view of history shows us that many Romans embraced Christ and jumped into the theatre to die with the Christians who were being martyred. Christianity spread at a phenomenal rate under Roman persecution. In less than thirty years the Roman world was evangelized. In just three hundred years, the seemingly undefeatable Roman Empire was conquered by God’s love, and Christianity became the official religion.
God never fails, and His love never fails. Individuals may fail to respond to His love and thus bear the consequences, but love never fails. It will always prevail in the end. We just need to give it time. We need to walk in all its attributes of contentment, patience, endurance, rejoicing in truth, believing all things-The Lord doesn’t force everyone and everything into compliance because it isn’t time for that yet. Now is the time of mercy, when the Lord is long- suffering and gives everyone ample opportunity to repent [simple_tooltip content=’9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.’](2 Peter 3:9-10)[/simple_tooltip]. As we act in love, we use the strongest force in the universe. History has proven the power of love. If we just believe and exercise patience, love will never fail us.
