Is Love Gullible?
FEB love series
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 13
In Paul’s famous prose about love we find this line: “Love believes all things.”
Does Paul mean that love is gullible? Gullible people, after all, are the kind of people who believe anything they are told. Is that how we are expected to live? When you weigh that against the regular exhortations to be discerning and the constant warnings we find in Scripture concerning the deceptiveness of the devil, it doesn’t make sense that Paul would encourage us to be oblivious to these dark realities of life.
I think the best way to understand what Paul is saying is to interpret it like this: Believe the best about people until it is proven otherwise. Assume they have right and good motives. Don’t let your starting point and default mode be the worse possibilities.
People are sinners. Christians get that. We know how evil humans can be. Many of us understand the doctrine of the total depravity of man. What we forget is that total depravity means we are as bad off as we can be, but not necessarily as bad as we can be. We have the potential to be much worse than we are. When it comes to evil, it is important to know most of us aren’t living up to our full potential. And thank God for that.
The problem for us is because we know how evil people can be, we are tempted to believe the worst about everyone. And this is what Paul is warning against. He wants us, in love, to lean the other way. He wants us to give people the benefit of the doubt.
To lean toward being the kind of person who automatically assumes and believes the worst about everyone will make you a very hard, unapproachable, unfriendly, unkind sort of chap. People will sense that you mistrust them, don’t like them, and think poorly of them. They will cut you off from their lives. You will have closed the door by your spirit of distrust. Any opportunity for gospel ministry will be lost.
There are people you shouldn’t trust. There are people who you better be very cautious around. But until someone reveals that to you through their words and actions, don’t make that the starting point of all your relationships. Believe all things in love.