The Way of Love

With February being the month of Valentines Day, I was considering the “theme” of this holiday. Love. For some people it’s a great time, but others may be at a place that does not quite look like the one they envision. I looked to the Bible for further understanding. Clearly it says to love God and to love one another as we love ourselves, but I couldn’t find anywhere that it mentioned a part about getting melancholy or mad about your current perceived love-situation. In fact, the following passage sings about a Love that is content, unrelenting, others-centered, and joyous. Read it aloud, slowly, lingering on every thought.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (The Message)

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

The core message of the Bible is to love, love, love. Love Him first with all your heart. Then love your neighbor as you love yourself. God presumes without question that you will love yourself. When you’re hungry, you find food to eat. When you’re cold, you will find warmth. When you’re hurting, you will find comfort. You will go out of your way to meet your own needs – to love yourself. Likewise, we are to go out of our way to love others. Is love the first of your priorities, or an “add-on” where you might think it appropriate?

Lord of Love, I pray that we will all prioritize love above all else, as you have clearly instructed us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Barb