The Most Excellent Way #18

"Carrying His own cross, He went to The Place of the Skull..."

John 19:17

"...Love..." "...always perseveres..."(I Cor. 13:4,7)(NIV) "...all things endures..."(Interlinear) "...it endures everything (without weakening)."(Amplified) "...endureth all things..."(KJV) "...there is no limit to its...endurance..."(N.E.B.)

In Paul's descriptions of love in I Cor. 13 he records two words that can be translated endure. In verse four he uses the word makrothumei. This word refers to patience or endurance with respect to other people. The word he uses in verse 7 is hupomonei. It is a word, according to Zodhiates, that refers to various things, not people. Therefore sufferings and hardships, due to things will not quell love. Nothing can do that for agape, according to Paul, in "...all things endures..."(Interlinear) This word is used by John in Jesus' statement to the church at Ephesus in Rev. 2:3: "You have persevered and have endured(hupomonen) hardships for my name, and have not grown weary."(NIV)(Interlinear)

Matthew Henry described this attribute of love when he wrote: "...holds firm, though it may be shocked, or borne hard upon; sustains all manner of injury and ill usage, and bears up under it, such as curses, contumacies, slander, prison, exile, bonds, torments, and death itself for the sake of the injurious, and of others; and perseveres in this firmness." Adam Clarke said it "Bears up under all persecutions and maltreatment..."

Isaiah prophesied of Jesus that He would be "...oppressed..." "...afflicted..." "...led to slaughter..." "...cut off out of the land of the living..." "...despised..." "...forsaken..." "A man of sorrows..." "...acquainted with grief..." "...pierced through for our transgressions..." Isaiah added of Him: "...by His scourging we are healed..." "...the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him..."(Isa. 53:3-9)(NASB)

Scripture says of Him: "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured(hupemeinen) the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."(Heb. 12:2)(NIV)(Interlinear)

And since we are no greater than the Master it says to us: "...let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance-unnecessary weight-and that sin which so readily(deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance(hupomones) and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,"(Heb. 12:1)(Amplified)(Interlinear)

After all the things Jesus endured on that lonely hill, He simply looked at them and said "Father forgive them..."(Lk. 23:34)(KJV) How can love best be described? And He tells us "...Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."(Jn. 13:34)(NIV) No wonder that His apostle would exhort the Corinthians: "...Love..."(I Cor. 13:4) is that which in "...all things endures..."(I Cor. 13:7)(Interlinear)