Loving like God loves

Often read at weddings and often called the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13 is both joyful and sobering. Who can love like this without the Holy Spirit of God filling their heart with it?

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–8)

The ’everlasting’ part touches me today. This says love will outlive all declarations about God, all spiritual gifts, all understanding and knowledge. I cannot imagine the world without those three — yet even when they are obsolete, love remains.

A few verses later, a greater statement is made . . .

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Think of eternity in these terms. Nothing else will be needed but love. Why is that? It strikes me that faith is about trusting Christ, but also about me. Hope is about the assurance of God for my future, but also about me.

Love is different; it is not about me. Yes, God loves me, but because the Holy Spirit pours it in me so it can be poured out, His love gives me concern for others, just as His heart is about others.

Faith and hope will be realized — what I believe and hope for will become a reality. However, the endless, everlasting love of God is always real and will never pass away or become completely fulfilled. His love is without boundaries, without beginning or end, without total fulfilment in that it is never done. It will never waver like faith does, never be uncertain like hope is, but always shining and poured out from a God whose love cannot fade or be used up.

Tozer says that my love for God should include reverence without levity or a careless familiarity. While I agree, I know that God’s love for me often chuckles just as His humor shows in creation with the crafting of some of the silliest of animals and their habits.

However, there is a reason I should never consider God lightly. Loving Him produces great conviction of my own unworthiness. God has no reason to love me except love is who He is. Faith is about me trusting Him. Hope is about me putting my expectations in His promises. But love begins with God.

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins . . . We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:10, 19)

Unless I realize that He loves me, unless I know Him, I cannot love Him or anyone else with that endless and abiding love. Instead, my ‘love’ will be based on the performance of others, not like God’s love that is based on who He is apart from any deservedness in us.

^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, to love as You love I need the Holy Spirit and the willingness to admit that I cannot do it without You. I also need to remember and fully embrace the fact that You love me, regardless of who I am and what I do. This is who You are. I also need You to keep me aware that Satan’s biggest lie remains ‘God does not love you’ and not let this enemy bring doubt or forgetfulness into my mind. Thank You for Your grace and for holding me in Your care.

Love is almost impossible . . .

Today’s devotional passage is often read at weddings:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–8)

The bride and groom are so much ‘in love’ that they might not hear the reading, never mind realize the challenges of loving as the Bible instructs!

The author of the devotional does a good job of describing what 1 Corinthians 13 says using the King James version. It works much the same with my version (and a peek at the original Greek language). Before sharing that, I question if any married couple can love like this when she burns supper for the third time in a week, or he is late home every day for several days, or they are unable to have children, or one of them becomes too friendly with someone else, or becomes chronically ill, or — well, when life happens?

Here is a more detailed description of biblical love:

·         Love is patient. Love is even-tempered while enduring trying circumstances of all kinds.

·         Love is kind. Love is warm-hearted, considerate, humane, gentle and sympathetic, even useful when others are mean, inconsiderate, cold, and impatient.

·         Love does not envy. It does not painfully desire the advantages of another or resent their good fortune.

·         Love does not boast or vaunt itself, bragging and pointing to self in any situation, even if they have risen to some occasion or aced a challenge.

·         Love is not arrogant, or proud, or haughty, or vain about its own accomplishments and desiring glory for anything. That makes it much easier to not boast or vaunt itself!

·         Love is not rude. It does not defy moral and social standards nor treat other people with distain or disrespect.

·         Love does not insist on its own way. Immature children want what they want when they want it, but those who love are concerned that others get what they need.

·         Love is not irritable. Love does not become incited or stirred up with emotions, feelings, or reactions when provoked. It does not get upset over what others do. This covers everything from leaving the cap off the toothpaste to far more serious habits and behaviors.

·         Love is not resentful. This word has to do with keeping score. Love never says, ‘You keep doing this’ or ‘this is the tenth time you have forgotten to do this.’ Love does not hold grudges either.

·         Love does not rejoice at wrong doing. Love does not take pleasure when another person fails, falls, makes a mistake, or does something wrong, as if their downfall makes me look better.

·         Love rejoices with the truth. Love is glad when truth is upheld, when reality is faced, when sins are acknowledged and confessed, when the Word of God is shown to be reliable. Love is glad when righteousness prevails.

·         Love bears all things. Love endures both annoyances and difficulties without flying off the handle. It does not yell at the person who cuts them off in traffic.

·         Love believes all things. Love has strong confidence in others, that they will do good, right things. It is not always suspicious or paranoid, expecting the worst, even if the other person has a bad track record.

·         Love hopes all things, expects the best of others, knowing that God can produce goodness in anyone.

·         Love endures all things, faces and withstands all things even the greatest challenges, without falling apart.

·         Love never ends. This kind of love cannot fail or be defeated. It lasts forever.

Not only are these verses describing love in a marriage, this love is expected from all Christians toward others, friends or foes. It is the love of Christ and apart from Him, it is simply impossible.

^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, as I read this list again I am thinking, “this is how You love me” and my selfishness melts into a puddle. How can I remain unloving when the very God of creation, the Lord of all things, has this kind of love toward me? Yes, there is an idealism here that sounds wonderful at weddings and in theory, but with You, it is real and practical. Without You, I know I cannot love like this, but because You are with me, I may fail to love but I also have no excuse.

Love is . . .

This passage is read at weddings, taught in basic Bible studies, and offered as a test of genuine love. However, Chambers says that we cannot use it to prove anything . . .

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. (1 Corinthians 13:4–8)

Those who love others do not plan what they are going to do to show it; they just show it. In that way, love is not a premeditated action. It is spontaneous. It reveals itself without thinking of ways to do it.

The love that this passage talks about is unnatural too —it comes from God, not the human heart. When Christians live in the power of the Holy Spirit and under His management, love for others is so natural that we don’t think about it or even discern it until after it is expressed.

“ . . . God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)

Without the Holy Spirit, I know my inability to love. I am selfish and concerned only about myself. The love of God is expressed when the Holy Spirit pours it into my heart, and that love, poured into the hearts of God’s people, has changed the world.

Early Christians were known for their love: “ . . . you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.” (1 Thessalonians 4:9) This love showed up in their care for widows and orphans. They rescued thrown-away children, tended the sick, and nurtured the poor. Christians started schools, hospitals, and orphanages. Our best legal systems are based on biblical principles. Without this sacrificial and spontaneous love, the world is full of hate and violence.

Yet this love is individual as well as corporate. People say they will not believe our message unless they know we care and such caring is not a planned action. It must be spontaneous, the driving-force of our lives.

Not only that, I cannot love as God wants me to love without knowing how deeply He loves me. I must live in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit too. If I try to run my own life, even run it by trying not to be rude or selfish, irritable or resentful, I will not have the power and grace to be patient and kind. In my human kind of love, I will still want my own way, envy others, and boast, even secretly, about how good I am. None of that describes the love of God.

Finally, as Chambers says, if I try to prove to God how much I love Him, then I do not. The evidence is spontaneity — it comes naturally and flows from His gift to me of His own Spirit of love!