Few people have endured such agony. He was hated and time after time after time sworn at, cheated, whipped, cruelly beaten, jailed, hit with stones until almost dead, and shipwrecked (1 Corinthians 4:11-13; 2 Corinthians 11:23-29).

Paul’s understanding of the purest love completes his claim as an expert on the link between God’s love and suffering (1 Corinthians 13). He was not fooled by the many forms of mere emotional self-centeredness that many people pretend to be love.

Though you reject every Christian on the planet, you cannot ignore this saint of a man. And he discovered that the reality of suffering cannot reduce the endlessness of God’s powerful love.

This understanding did not come cheaply to Paul, and he realized it could not be passed on by words alone (Ephesians 3:17-19). Deep experience, prayer, and continual closeness to God is the price people must pay to gain such deep understanding.