I Corinthians 13:1-13
What does “love conquers all” mean?
It means love can conquer any hardships, difficulties, and challenges.
What does love conquers all mean biblically? It preaches that God loves everyone and those who are kind will be rewarded with love and joy. The Bible says that vices like hatred, manipulation, and deception are not fought with weapons, but love. Although the phrase “love conquers all” does not exist in the Bible, many verses preach a similar sentiment.
It is often said that love conquers all, that love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the force that gives healing and life, binds souls together, and whispers to us that all will be well. We can see throughout the Bible that love conquers fear, evil, and sins.
But the power of love comes from its source. It is not a thing in and of itself. This is the mistake the world often makes. When love becomes the force we honor or worship, its power vaporizes. But if we let the radiance of love beckon us back to its source, we find the true reason as to why love conquers all. We find there is a Lover behind love, and that Lover is committed to conquering all that is not love and all that is not lovely.
That Lover is God Himself, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, whose life together is always one of mutual love. Love conquers all because God is love and God has already won.
What do we mean when we say that love conquers all? How are we to understand this in terms of how the Bible pictures love? The very idea of conquering implies a battle being fought with victors and losers. And this is certainly how the Bible pictures reality. There is a massive war being fought between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world.
The human race is in a struggle between these two sides. On one side, we have the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. On the other, we have the Unholy Trinity: the world with its structures opposed to God, the sin that corrupts us, called the flesh, and Satan himself. This Unholy Trinity seeks to dominate by hatred, deception, manipulation, and power struggles.
But God doesn’t fight with any of those weapons. The weapon He has chosen is love.
The Father gave His only Son and then the gift of His Holy Spirit, all out of sacrificial love. We underestimate the power of love to conquer. We underestimate God and His wisdom.
Although the actual phrase “love conquers all” is not in the Bible, the truth of it is behind so many verses. Here are a few examples:
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. – Romans 8:37
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. – 1 Corinthians 13:7
How exactly does love conquers all?
We all have the habits of behavior and thinking that seem resistant to change. We know we should stop doing them, but their power over us feels overwhelming. You can call it an addiction, a bad habit, a character defect, or a thorn in the flesh (to use Paul’s term). Whatever you call it, the result is the same. We feel stuck. We are in bondage.
Entering God’s love to open our hearts and receive His love precisely at the place we feel stuck is to open the door out of prison.
Once you have tasted God’s love, there is a desire to offer that love to others. It starts with loved ones and friends, but it is to move out into more difficult relationships, even to those we consider enemies. How does this happen? It starts by choosing to forgive those who have wounded us. This is the way of Christ. But it is also the way our hearts become freed from bitterness. We then make that love tangible by listening. In the listening, enmity is healed.
Here is a final way love conquers all: Our default mode as humans is to find fault with others so that we can feel better about ourselves. We all carry on this critical tendency to one degree or another. In its most virulent form, it becomes a toxic mistrust or hatred. This is prejudice, where the things that make someone unique become the subject of criticism.
But the way of love is so different. Instead of looking for the worst in others and finding fault, love believes the best in others and seeks to build them up. This does not mean that we overlook their faults. What it does mean is that our focus is not their fault. It is instead on their gifts and strengths and on all the good that God can accomplish in their lives.
Let’s Experience the Conquering Power of Love
1 John 4:19 … We love because he first loved us.
The power of love is available to any of us because it’s the free gift of God. Use this prayer to start:
Father, I long to know more of your personal love for me. You don’t just love humanity. You love me individually with all of my faults and sins. Help me to open my heart to receive the love you have for me through your Son. Let that love conquer my heart. And then teach me the way of love toward all those around me. I want to see Your kingdom expand and watch Your love conquer. Come do more than I could ever ask or imagine because of the power of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.
WHOSOEVER WILL WORSHIP MINISTRIES
www.wwwmjesus.net
Assoc: Pastor Wesley Fulton
429 Bayou Rd, La Marque, Tx.77568
Need prayer Ch. Ph: 409/933-9878
