John Calvin Commentary 1 Corinthians 13:7

"beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." — 1 Corinthians 13:7 (ASV)

Beareth all things, etc. By all these statements he intimates that love is neither impatient nor spiteful. For to bear and endure all things is the part of forbearance; to believe and hope all things is the part of candor and kindness.

As we are naturally too much devoted to self, this vice renders us morose and peevish. The effect is that everyone wishes that others should carry him on their shoulders, but refuses for his part to assist others. The remedy for this disease is love, which makes us subject to our brethren and teaches us to apply our shoulders to their burdens (Galatians 6:2).

Furthermore, as we are naturally spiteful, we are consequently suspicious too, and take almost everything amiss. Love, on the other hand, calls us back to kindness, so that we think favorably and candidly of our neighbors.

When he says all things, you must understand him as referring to the things that ought to be endured, and in a fitting manner. For we are not to bear with vices, to sanction them by flattery, or, by winking at them, encourage them through our inaction. Furthermore, this endurance does not exclude corrections and just punishments. The case is the same regarding kindness in judging things.

Love believeth all things — not that the Christian knowingly and willingly allows himself to be imposed upon, not that he divests himself of prudence and judgment so that he may be more easily taken advantage of, not that he unlearns the way of distinguishing black from white. What then? He requires here, as I have already said, simplicity and kindness in judging things; and he declares that these are the invariable accompaniments of love. The consequence will be that a Christian man will consider it better to be imposed upon by his own kindness and gentle disposition than to wrong his brother by an unfriendly suspicion.