Love

Love of the human heart is so fickle. Let me explain. The other day my husband and I were both busy with work, supporting each other around the house and trading turns with the kids who were out of school for the day so we could both get some work done before a BBQ we were having that night. By the end of the night we had communicated on the necessities alone and tossed in a few “thank you’s” and “I love you’s.” All in all, we were serving each other pretty well. But near the end of the day I had a thought, “I would like to have more meaningful conversation with him, but I know he is busy and likes a moment to rest at the end of a long day, so I will wait to communicate that need and all the other thoughts in my head so I am considerate of his time.” Well, for whatever reason a few hours past and that thought turned into, “I have too much to say and I’m

SURE he doesn’t want to hear what I have to say anyway.” So I started acting like that was true (even though he had no clue about any of it) and giving him a version of the cold shoulder. So instead of having the thoughtful mutually beneficial conversation I thought about earlier, we both ended up speaking, well, not so kindly to one another.

Well, the next day I was still processing the whole thing and this is what God showed me. I need to love in HIS power and not my own. 1 Corinthians 13 is so important to know and live in this day and age. So I am intentionally putting the WHOLE chapter here for you to read.

“If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Love is an interesting beast: some people say it is a noun, and others a verb. But 1 John 4 tells us “God is love” and that he “made manifest” Love through the sacrifice of Jesus. A little later in John 4, we see that  “perfect love casts out all fear” and we should not fear judgment, punishment of loss, but instead love others in return.

We were created in God’s image and if “God is love” than we too should be love.  But what is love? Love is the purposeful seeking of someone else's’ benefit. Like 1 Corinthians said before, it is not selfish or self seeking. We do not know perfect love on earth without Christ.  Christ perfected Love for us. When we try to love on our own strength it is temporary at best. We do have the ability to love, to put others needs before our own with the intent of only bringing them joy, but it does not take our flesh but a few minutes, maybe hours if we are lucky, before we get back to keeping that record of how people should treat you because of “all you have done for them!”

Love in its pure form is only attainable through the power of Christ Jesus.  But we can move towards that as soon as he is present in our lives! At the moment we “confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lords believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead” Jesus comes and joins us and the Holy Spirit comes to be home with us.  With the Spirit, we are promised that we “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:18).

What a powerful thought.  True love is meant to be given and received every moment of every day.  Think for a second the moment in life you felt the absolute MOST loved, even if it lasted a moment.  Now, think of that for eternity- that is how God created us to be with Him and ALL others. So, yes, our world is a broken mess- but we no longer have to be if we allow the perfect love to cast out all fear and renew us, restore us, and redeem us.

So because of Jesus in us, we do not have to argue with our spouse about the little things or rail against everything the way that world does in this polarized society. Instead, we can “speak the truth in love,” meaning we only speak the truth when we are speaking out of genuine concern for the other person, not out of anger, proving a point, competitiveness, bitterness, rage, envy, hurt or any other emotion than love.  I don’t fully know what that looks like on a practical daily level, but I do know it does NOT mean to keep your mouth shut on everything. Instead it makes me want to check my heart. Am I looking to edify the person, relationship, or situation or am I creating or adding fuel to a destructive fire?

“The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences” (Prov 18:20). So my personal thought is DANG! Love is amazing and I SO BADLY misuse it or misrepresent it.  Then I am reminded we are not to live in the failures, but to continue to be transformed into christ’s image. So my next thought falls to this: how can I reciprocitate God’s unconditional and eternal love SO THAT I can give it away to others?

How are we supposed to love with truth in the world we currently live in? I am so encouraged to study the Bible wherever it talks about truth and love so that I can better equip myself to navigate the chaos of the world in a God honoring way. Let’s lean into acting the way Jesus would want us to in the real world and online. Let us be thoughtful when we are posting and commenting and let's let our words be “ always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:6).