Love Believes All Things

Love believes all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). I have struggled with this one. I do not believe it means being naive and gullible and accepting things as true which have no rational basis. I see nothing in Scripture to commend such an attitude. But I do believe it is speaking against an attitude of skepticism and cynicism that too easily dismisses people when they do not live up to our expectations.  With God it means trusting Him even when things do not turn out our way  (Proverbs 3:5,6; Hebrews 11:13-16; 2 Corinthians 5:7). With people it means encouraging them and helping them to follow God rather than dismissing at the first sign of failure (Hebrews 10:24,25; Colossians 3:12-14; Matthew 18:21,22). A good example of this is Barnabas who gave John Mark another chance when he had failed earlier (Acts 12:13; 15:37-39; 2 Timothy 4:11). There can sometimes be a thin line between this and being gullible, but we need to walk that line.