When interacting with other people, they may do things that we don’t like. Their attitudes and actions make life difficult and challenging. And when things are difficult, we generally want to steer clear.

Paul begins the character of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4 with its response to a problem—the problem of challenging and frustrating people. And what does love do when it is challenged, when its buttons are pushed? Love suffers a long time. Love puts up with people’s challenges and difficulties (Gordon Fee). Love bears up under the difficulty and continues in spite of the difficulty.

I think the best example of love suffering is parents. When I was asked what it was like to be a parent, I tried to find the best words and here is what I came up with. Having kids is wonderfully hard; emphasis on wonderful. But let’s face it, kids can also be extremely difficult. For example, your kid asks for a yogurt. Great, I will get you a yogurt. You open it up, put the spoon in, give it a stir, and then happily hand it to your child only for them to cry uncontrollably. What happened, you thought? You wanted this; I got this. What went wrong? Only to find out later they didn’t want you to stir it and because you did they do not want it anymore.

How much more does God the Father suffer through us, our will and our sins? It’s incredible to think that God actually introduced suffering into His existence by creating us. He must really desire to love us! And oh how He has shown it since the beginning of time!

The first thing we learn about the character of love here is that it doesn’t give up when frustrated. Love does not quit when challenged. I think this is a love we all desire for our relationships, especially for our marriages. Thank God it is the love He gives to us.