Love trusts all things? really?

Trust, 2023 (12th painting of Love Series)

Keiko Yamada

Acrylic Painting on Canvas

20 x 24 inch

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, 

it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (NIV)

This famous passage of Scripture, often called the Hymn of Love, has touched many hearts.

It is also one of my favorite verses from the Bible, one I have loved for many years.

But one day, my eyes stopped at the words “Love always trusts…” and honestly, I felt a bit troubled.

“Love always trusts…”

Wait—doesn’t that sound dangerous!? 😨

For example:

What if someone who always borrows money but never pays it back says, “Hey, the Bible says love always trusts, right? So trust me and lend me money again.”

Or what if someone says, “Since love always trusts, you should be tolerant and believe not only in Christianity but also in Islam, Buddhism, and everything else!” But each religion teaches a very different view of who God is, and it’s impossible to believe them all at the same time.

In other words, when I thought about it, “always trusts” seemed either totally unrealistic, or even downright dangerous.

But here is the key: context.

Just as no one reads a novel while ignoring the context, the same applies to the Bible.

In reality, love is not defined only by the phrase “always trusts.” 

There are 14 other qualities described here, and taken together they form the complete picture of love.

If we took “always trusts” to mean “blindly believe everything,” then we would be ignoring the other qualities—such as “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”

In other words, it does not mean “swallow everything and let yourself be deceived.”

So then, within this context, what does the Bible mean when it says, “Love always trusts”?

📖　PAUSE ＆ REFLECT（Love always trusts)

Why do you think “love always trusts” is included as definition of love?

🌱🌱🌱

This painting was inspired by a Bible verse that especially came to mind as I was thinking about this—Proverbs 3:5.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

Proverbs 3:5

Don’t you feel great when you suddenly get it—that peak moment of understanding when you think, “Ah, so that’s how it works!”—as if the whole system of the world just clicked into place?

From that "understanding", we start to believe certain things and even speak about them with confidence.

But anyone who has bumped into the limits of human perception and understanding eventually realizes this:

Instead of clinging tightly to that “understanding” as if it were absolute truth, it’s wiser to hold it loosely—because it may be wrong, or at least incomplete.

Also, out of our own limited understanding, we often say things like: “You can do it!”

“You can do it.”

Even with only a limited understanding of a person or situation, this word can still carry great power.

I experienced this firsthand when someone said to me, “You can do it.” when I was at my worst.  

This happened during a season of severe burnout in my mid-twenties. At that point, I had nothing left in me to believe “I can do this” or that I could somehow overcome it.

My friend didn’t know the full story of what I was going through. She simply chose to believe the best for me and did everything she could to help. More than anything else, she trusted that God will come through in my life and work everything for the good, when I couldn't trust that for myself.

I never realized how much strength and hope can come from someone simply believing in you.

🌱

And here we come back to the words of Scripture: “Love always trusts.”

This is not about human love that comes and goes with moods. It is about agape love—the unchanging love that only God has.

It is the very love that Jesus Christ Himself has shown us.

🌱🌱🌱

Peter, Restored by Christ’s Trust

Peter was absolutely certain that he could follow Jesus Christ to the very end—even to prison or to death. He never doubted it for a second.

So when Jesus, who knew everything, told him, “No, you will deny Me three times,” Peter must have been shocked and unable to believe his own ears.

But in reality, right after Jesus was arrested, Peter did just that. He denied Him three times. He couldn’t even stay by His side, let alone face prison. At that moment, Peter must have felt ashamed, full of self-blame, and overwhelmed with sorrow toward Jesus.

And yet, before any of this happened, Jesus had already said to him:

But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.

And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

Luke 22:32

This was the trust that Jesus placed in Peter.

“Peter, you will be able to do it.”

It was not naive optimism that ignored Peter’s weakness. It was trust grounded in God’s providence—for God is the One who can even turn our weaknesses into good.

Through this painful experience, Peter realized something important:

He had overestimated himself and underestimated God.

But when he remembered that Jesus had believed in him even at his very worst, Peter’s heart must have been deeply moved.

“I want to respond to Jesus’ love. I want to become the kind of man who is worthy of His trust.” That decision shaped the Peter we know from later on. The “seed of trust” that Jesus planted in him bore great fruit in his life, and in the lives of the many people Peter would later encounter.

📖 PAUSE & REFLECT — The Love of Jesus

Believing the best for the other person truly has the power to nurture people. Jesus did that for us, and He is still doing that for us even today.

If we can trust that with all of our hearts, how will it affect how you see others and yourself?

🌱🌱🌱

That same love has been poured out on us as well—for He knew all our weaknesses and failures, and yet He died on the cross and rose again for us.

Because of Christ, God accepts us completely and “always trusts” us, working all things for good. If we could truly trust in this love with all our hearts, how much lighter our lives would become?

As human beings, we were designed to “lean on” the object of our trust. That is why the Bible exhorts us:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 

Proverbs 3:5

🌱🌱🌱

📖 PAUSE & REFLECT — The Things We Do Not See

Proverbs 3:5 is not commanding us to ignore our understanding.

Understanding something (our 'light bulb' experiences) can bring life to us, like how the pink flowers are blossoming in this artwork.

However, this scripture is telling us not to stop there. 

Do not end with human reasoning based only on the information or summaries you have right now, but continue to nurture a living relationship with God Himself, who knows everything in complete picture.

Like in this painting, stretch your roots (understanding, reliance) deep into the unseen place where God Himself dwells.

Sometimes, when we “understand” something, we believe that’s the whole picture and rely on nothing else.

Is there something you think you already fully know?—For example, a familiar Bible passage you assume you’ve exhausted, or a fixed idea you hold toward a particular group of people.

🌱🌱🌱

📖 PAUSE & REFLECT — Nourishment for Us

The Lord gives us the nourishment we need in order to grow. By this nourishment, we are able to send strength through our roots, our trunk, our branches, and our leaves.

It is God Himself who makes us grow. But we must choose to turn our hearts toward Him.

Like Peter, what are the limits or weaknesses God has recently been making you aware of in your own life?

And in those very areas, how can you lean not on your own understanding, but trust in God with all your heart?

🌱🌱🌱

Thank you for reading!