Christian Life

Love’s Endurance

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

Love…endures all things. – 1 Corinthians 13:7

The last victory of love is in enduring all things, by which I understand a patient perseverance in loving. This is perhaps the hardest work of all, for many people can be affectionate and patient for a time, but the task is to hold on year after year. I have known some men earnestly check their temper under provocation, and bear a great many slights, but at last they have said, “There is an end to everything: I am not going to put up with it any longer. I cannot stand it.” Blessed be God, the love that Christ gives us endureth all things. As His love endured to the end, so does the love which the Spirit works in us endure to the end.

(L)ove holds out under all rebuffs. “You mean that I shall not love you, my good man, but I shall love you. You give me the rough side of your tongue and make me see that you are not a very lovable person, but I can love you notwithstanding all. What? Will you do me a further unkindness? I will oppose you by doing you a greater kindness than before. You said a vile thing about me; I will not hear it, but if it be possible I will say a kind thing of you. I will cover you up with hot coals till I melt you; I will war against you with flames of love till your anger is consumed. I will master you by being kinder to you than you have been unkind to me.” What hosts of misrepresentations and unkindnesses there are; but if you go on to be a true Christian you must endure all these…Stand fast in love; endure not some things, but all things, for Christ’s sake; so shall you prove yourself to be a Christian indeed. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm

Love Never Despairs

Sherry Christian Life Leave a comment

Love…hopes all things… – 1 Corinthians 13:7

Love never despairs. She believes in good things yet to come in her fellow-men, even if she cannot believe in any present good in them. Hope all things about your brethren. Suppose a friend is a member of the church, and you cannot see any clear signs of grace in him, hope all things about him. Many true believers are weak in faith, and the operations of grace are dim in them; and some are placed in positions where the grace they have is much hindered and hampered: let us take these things into consideration. It is hard to tell how little grace may yet suffice for salvation: it is not ours to judge. Hope all things, and if you should be forced to see sad signs in them, which make you fear that they have no grace, yet remember that some of the brightest believers have had their faults, and grave ones too. Remember yourself, lest you also be tempted. If you cannot hope that these persons are saved at all, hope that they will be, and do all that you can to promote so blessed an end.

Hope all things. If thy brother has been very angry with thee without a cause, hope that thou wilt win him; and set about the task. If thou hast tried and failed, hope to succeed next time, and try again. Hope that though thou hast failed seven times, and he still speaks bitterly, yet in his heart he is really ashamed, or at least that he will be so very soon. Never despair of your fellow Christians.

Cultivate great hopefulness about sinners. Always hope of them that they will be saved yet: though no good signs are apparent in them. If you have done your best for them, and have been disappointed and defeated, still hope for them. Hope because you are moved to pray for them…Till they are dead let not your hope be dead. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm

Love Believes in the Salvation of Men

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

Love…believes all things… – 1 Corinthians 13:7

Love believes that the precious blood of Christ can redeem the bondslaves of sin and Satan and break their iron chains; she believes that the power of the Holy Spirit can change a heart of granite into a heart of flesh. Love, therefore, believing this, believes also that God can save this sinner by herself, and she therefore begins to speak to him, expecting that the word she speaks will be God’s instrument of salvation…She does not refrain from preaching Christ through fear of failure, but she believes in the great possibilities which lie in the gospel and in the Spirit of God, and so she deals earnestly with the man next her. She believes in her own principles, she believes in the grace of God, she believes in the power of the Spirit of God, she believes in the force of truth, she believes in the existence of conscience, and so she is moved to set about her saving work. She believeth all things.

Brethren, do you want a model of this? Then I beseech you look to your divine Master. See Him in the morning when the sheep are counted, missing one of them, and so full of faith is He that He can find the lost one, that He leaves the ninety and nine, and cheerfully enters the pathless wilderness. See how He bounds over the mountains! How He descends the ravines! He is seeking His sheep until He finds it, for He is fully assured that He shall find it. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, for His faith is great in the salvation of men, and He goes forth to it believing that sinners shall be saved. I delight in the deep, calm faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. He had no faith in man’s goodness, for “He knew what was in man”; but He had great faith in what could be done in men and what could be wrought for them, and for the joy that was set before Him in this He endured the cross, despising the shame. He had faith that grand things would come of His salvation-men would be purified, error would be driven out, false-hood would be slain, and love would reign supreme. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm

Love’s Quick Eye to See the Best in Others

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life Leave a comment

Love…believes all things… – 1 Corinthians 13:7

I know some persons who habitually believe everything that is bad, but they are not the children of love. Only tell them that their minister or their brother has killed his wife, and they would believe it immediately and send out for a policeman: but if you tell them anything good of their neighbour, they are in no such hurry to believe you. Did you ever hear of gossips tittle-tattling approval of their neighbours? I wish the chatterers would take a turn at exaggerating other people’s virtues and go from house to house trumping up pretty stories of their acquaintances. I do not recommend lying even in kindness, but that side of it would be such a novelty that I could almost bear with its evils for a change. Love, though it will not speak an untruth in praise of another yet has a quick eye to see the best qualities of others, and it is habitually a little blind to their failings. Her blind eye is to the fault, and her bright is for the excellence…Surely it is ever our Lord’s way to see good points wherever He can. If you should ever be led into disappointments and sorrows by thinking too well of your fellow-men, you need not greatly blame yourself. I met, in Anthony Farrindon’s Sermons, a line which struck me. He says the old proverb has it, “Humanum est errare,” to err is human, but, saith he, when we err by thinking too kindly of others we may say, “Christianum est errare,” it is Christian to err in such a fashion. I would not have you credulous, but I would have you trustful, for suspicion is a cruel evil. Few fall into the blessed error of valuing their fellow Christians at too high a rate. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm

Love Believes the Best of the Brethren

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life Leave a comment

Love…believes all things… – 1 Corinthians 13:7

Love works miracles which only grace can enable her to perform. Here is the second of them-love “believeth all things.” In reference to our fellow Christians, love always believes the best of them. I wish we had more of this faith abroad in all the churches, for a horrid blight falls upon some communities through suspicion and mistrust. Though everything may be pure and right, yet certain weak minds are suddenly fevered with anxiety through the notion that all is wrong and rotten. This unholy mis-trust is in the air, a blight upon all peace: it is a sort of fusty mildew of the soul by which all sweet perfume of confidence is killed. The best man is suspected of being a designing knave, though he is honest as the day, and the smallest fault or error is frightfully exaggerated, till we seem to dwell among criminals and to be all villains together. If I did not believe in my brethren I would not profess to be one of them. I believe that with all their faults they are the best people in the world, and that, although the church of God is not perfect, yet she is the bride of One who is. I have the utmost respect for her, for her Lord’s sake. Where Christ is King, she who stands at His right hand is “the queen in gold of Ophir.” God forbid that I should rail at her of whom her Lord says, “Since thou wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee.” True love believes good of others as long as ever it can, and when it is forced to fear that wrong has been done, love will not readily yield to evidence, but she gives the accused brother the benefit of many a doubt. When the thing is too clear, love says, “Yes, but the friend must have been under very strong temptation, and if I had been there, I dare say I should have done worse;” or else love hopes that the erring one may have offended from a good though mistaken motive; she believes that the good man must have been mistaken, or he would not have acted so. Love, as far as she can, believes in her fellows. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm 

Bear All Things for Christ’s Sake

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation 2 Comments

Charity beareth all things… – 1 Corinthians 13:7

If you should meet with some extraordinary sinner who opens his mouth with cruel speeches such as you have never heard before, and if by attempting to do him good you only excite him to ribaldry and blasphemy, do not be astonished; have at him again, for charity “beareth all things,” whatever they may be. Push on and say, “Yes, all this proves to me how much you want saving. You are my man; if I get you to Christ there will be all the greater glory to God.” O blessed charity, which can thus cover all things and bear all things for Christ’s sake.

Do you want an example of it? Would you see the very mirror and perfection of the charity that beareth all things? Behold your divine Lord. Oh, what He has covered! It is a tempting topic, but I will not dwell on it. How His glorious righteousness, His wondrous splendour of love has covered all our faults and all their consequences, treating us as if He saw no sin in Jacob, neither perversity in Israel. Think what He bore when He came unto His own and His own received Him not! What a covering was that when He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” What a pitying sight of the fearful misery of man our Lord Jesus had when holy tears bedewed those sacred eyes! What a generous blindness to their infamous cruelty He manifested when He prayed for His bloodthirsty enemies. O beloved, you will never be tempted, and taunted, and tried as He was; yet in your own shorter measure may you possess that love which can silently bear all things for the elect’s sake and for Christ’s sake, that the multitude of the redeemed may be accomplished, and that Christ, through you, may see of the travail of His soul. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm

Still Speak Concerning Christ

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation Leave a comment

Love bears all things… – 1 Corinthians 13:7

Those who love the souls of men must be prepared to cover much when they deal with them, and to bear much from them in silence. When I begin to seek the conversion of anyone, I must try as much as ever I can to ignore any repulsiveness that there may be in his character. I know that he is a sinner, else I should not seek his salvation; but if he happens to be one who has fallen very low in the esteem of others, I must not treat him as such, but cover his worst points. You cannot possibly bring the Samaritan woman who has had five husbands into a right state of mind by “wondering that he spake with the woman.” Thus, the disciples acted, but not so their Master, for He sat on the well and talked with her and made Himself her willing companion that He might be her gracious Saviour; He ignored her sin so far as to converse with her for her good.

You will not long have begun this holy work before you will discover in the heart you seek to win much ignorance of the gospel. Bear with it and bring forward the text which sheds light on that darkness and teach the truth which will remove that error. Ere long you will have to contend with hardness of heart, for when a man knows the truth, he is not always willing to receive it. Bear it and be not vexed…You are sent to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God…In addition to this perhaps you will have ridicule poured upon you; your attempts to convert will be converted into jests. Bear it; bear all things! Remember how the multitude thrust out the tongue at your Lord and Master when he was dying and be not you so proud as to think yourself too good to be laughed at. Still speak concerning Christ, and whatever happens, bear all things. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm