True Love

As I sit here on the eve of Valentine's Day I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. While I'm not a fan of "Hallmark" holidays I am grateful to have a formal reminder of true love.

Do you have people in your life that seem to simply be noise makers? You know who I mean, the person who always seems to have an answer for everything, the person who doesn't seem to ever really be present even though they are standing in front of you. If we are really honest with ourselves we will have to admit that you and I have been that person. Perhaps it has been with your spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, mother, father, child, or even a coworker or employee. But how do we change? What's really wrong?

I would submit to you that we have lost sight of what True Love is.

So let's take a quick look back to 1 Corinthians 13. What do you see? Read it one more time but this time slow down while you read 1 Cor 13:4-7. Before we lift that finger we were about to point just a moment ago let's evaluate ourselves against what Love is not.

Those verses say that Love does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, is not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, and doesn't delight in evil. Although I can't speak for you, I know I've been guilty of some, most or perhaps all of those at some point in my life. It makes me wonder how often I sounded like a clanging cymbal--a mere noise maker.

But the greater contrast is what Love IS. Love is patient, kind, protects, trusts, hopes and always perseveres. Can you imagine what it would be like to be loved in that way? How different would your life be if you were loved with patience despite your flaws, treated kindly even though you have moments of selfishness, and perpetually trusted with hope even though you have previously failed. My guess is that you would feel like you were on the top of the world, that you could do anything--without fear.

I think that many of us hold back living in true love because we are afraid. Afraid of what? Afraid that we will not be loved in this way because we know how hard it is to love in this way. But we must remember that this is exactly how Christ loves us. 1 John 4:18 reminds us that "perfect loves casts out fear." If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ you are loved perfectly! You are loved with a love that perseveres even when you fail.

So what do we do with this knowledge? I believe we need to learn to accept the love of God and abide in Him in such a way that His perfect love fills and flows through us till it overflows out of our lives into the lives of those who need to experience a love like this. Imagine how different your community would be if we allowed Christ to infect our lives with this perfected love! Imagine what would happen as we love those around us as best we humanly can as He loves us.

Now we have a choice to make. Will we be a clanging cymbal merely making noise or will we choose to model Christ's love that casts fear. Perhaps this Valentine's Day you will think twice about that lovely box of chocolates and take a step toward the One who loves perfectly.