Believing Everything and Anything?
What does Paul mean when he says that love “believes all things”? We can be certain he doesn’t mean that just ‘having faith’ is all that matters, because his letters consistently emphasise the importance of believing the true gospel message. Sinclair offers two possible interpretations which fit with the general teaching of the Bible.
The first is that love always seeks to believe the best about people. This doesn’t mean we throw discernment out the window, but that we have a generous disposition and don’t leap to negative conclusions about people’s actions or motives.
The second is that love “always trusts” (1 Corinthians 13:8, NIV). We keep on believing in and trusting God, because he has proved himself to be trustworthy. Jesus always trusted his Father, even as he hung on the cross. He used the words of the psalms to express himself in those dark moments, saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Psalm 22:1) and, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46; Psalm 31:5).
It’s therefore not too much of a stretch to think that Jesus may have praised God with the words of Psalm 18 when he rose on Easter Sunday morning:
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold…
In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears…
He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because he delighted in me.
Psalm 18:1-2, 6, 19
Sinclair writes, “Psalm 18, when placed on the lips of Jesus, essentially says, Father, I kept my promises to you; and you have kept all your promises to me—and to all who will come to trust in me. The cross and the empty tomb tell us something. They prove that all of God’s promises can be trusted. For the promise that his Son would suffer in our place (Isaiah 53:4-6) was surely the hardest promise the Father ever made. And yet he kept it.”
God makes wonderful promises to those who put their trust in Jesus: to forgive our sins; to hear our prayers; to work for our good and walk alongside us through all the difficulties of life; to bring us safely into his presence. We can trust that he will keep all these promises, because he has already kept the hardest-to-keep one through the life and death of Christ.
Today, reflect on the ways God has proved his trustworthiness to you. Which of his promises do you most need to hold on to now? Pray that you would continue to trust and believe all that God says to you.
Love Came Down at Christmas by Sinclair B. Ferguson (published by The Good Book Company) available to buy at Eden Christian Bookstore or Amazon.