Love Is in It for Good

Guest Post by David Powlison

In a single phrase, the first two words characterizing love in 1 Corinthians 13:4 can be expressed this way: Love is in it for good.

Love is in it for good: patient. God is committed for as long as it takes, whatever is going on, however slow the process. He bears with us purposefully, intentionally, through all time. In his great patience, he will complete what he has begun, to his glory and our joy.

Love is in it for good: kind. God freely gives every good gift, doing and saying what is helpful, always constructive, always merciful, always generous. He gives more grace. He gives what is needed. In his great kindness, he will complete what he has begun, to our glory and his joy.

God is love, therefore God is patience and God is kindness. And of course, since every promise of God is Yes in the Son of God, this Jesus is patience and is kindness. Love walked among us, taking on flesh, tempted as we are yet without sin, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, dealing gently with the ignorant and wayward.

Such love is a communicable attribute of God. This means that in taking us on—often impatient, often unkind—and making us over into the image of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will make us patient and kind. He will teach us to become in-it-for-good with other people, amid the ups, the downs, the vicissitudes, the exigencies. This is the life-long goal of Christian ministry: "love, that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Timothy 1:5).

The fuller Old Testament equivalent to 1 Corinthians 13:4 had already been revealed on Sinai:

The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger [in the Greek, "patient"], abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. (Exodus 34:6–7a)

He is in it for good with all who take this revelation to heart as God's great gift of himself, as our greatest need, as the goal of our moral transformation. (And this God will justly destroy intransigent iniquity, all that spurns such a gift, denies such a need, refuses such a goal—Exodus 34:7b.)

It is striking that when revealing his glory and goodness, the LORD chooses to show forth communicable attributes. He could have mentioned his omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, self-existence, eternity, things infinitely beyond the creature. But he chose to reveal his mercy, what is within our comprehension, within our experience, within our grasp, by grace. We, too, learn to become merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, forgiving. (And we, too, learn to justly hate what is evil.)

What we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. He is in it for good, and so are we.

As a pastor friend often says, "That'll preach." And, it's worth adding, "That'll counsel," both for would-be helpers and for those in need of help.