¹⁰As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia. ¹¹Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!

Paul boasts of his love for the Corinthians. There it is, right out in the open. And he calls on God as his witness. Little imagination is needed to sense his passionate outcry. This is not the uncontrollable lament of a spurned lover who is left forlorn in self-pity, desperately trying to convince his rejecter. But the apostle is definitely pleading with them to recognize his love for them. He had planted many churches, with innumerable believers owing their salvation to his faithful, sacrificial preaching of the gospel to them. And he loved them all. The Corinthian letters, however, give us a sampling of his emotional feelings toward all of his converts.

Yes, Paul boasts in his actions of love. He exalted love in his first letter to them as that which edifies (1 Cor. 8:1), so his boasting over his love for them was not a means of building up himself, the way we usually think of boasting. No, he wanted to enlarge their understanding of his affections for them as a means of building them up. They are worth his best, most costly efforts. His determination is on his shirt sleeve; nothing will stop his boast.

What we learn from these short verses is enormous. Christian love knows no bounds. That doesn’t mean we allow others to use us as doormats. But it does mean there is no sacrifice too great, even rejection by the person or people we love, that will stop us from loving them. Is that not the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we are to emulate?

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. (Phil. 2:5–7)

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8)

If we are to turn our cheek to our enemy, then how much more should we respond to our brothers and sisters in Christ when they act like our enemies? This is not a passive letting others have their way with us. No, this is an active response of love. Paul would not give up on the Corinthians, even those who sowed seeds of discord against him. Rather, he tried every means he could to reach out to them to win over their affections. He wrote earlier, “I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some” (1 Cor. 9:22).

Lord, help me love even those who reject my love, that I might win them over.