Day 4
Love Has Everything to Do 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 in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
As an elementary student, Valentine’s Day brought tremendous angst. Selecting specific individuals to be the recipients of my Valentine was always a daunting task, especially if I was trying to get the attention of the girl I had a pre-adolescent crush on. Maybe this would be the catalyst that would ignite a fourth-grade romance of “going out” when in all actuality, we never went anywhere. Boyfriend and girlfriend would be titles associated with, if one was brave enough, holding sweaty hands on the playground or sitting next to one another on the merry-go-round.
On the other hand, I often wondered who would put their Valentines into my box or the folder that I crafted out of red and pink construction paper. Surely this holiday mailbox would validate my popularity, particularly if one of those Valentine SweetTarts (the white ones were the best) was placed inside of it. Little did we know back then that we were delivering the first text messages. Words faintly stamped onto hard candy that spelled BE MINE.
Love is more than a date on the calendar or a baby with wings pulling back an arrow. Whether we are an awkward child, a hormonal teenager, or an adult at any stage of life, we desire and crave to be loved. We want to know that someone cares. While words may bring a certain amount of satisfaction, actions often speak louder. What creates the “double whammy” is if actions and words properly align and are unified without contradiction or confusion. Words articulated from the lips, with actions that demonstrate authentic care and concern, provide a beautiful tapestry of love that richly covers our hearts and warms the imperfections of our humanity.
At many weddings, the officiant will often recite 1 Corinthians 13. Paul pens a long, Holy Spirit-led definition of love. What love is. What love is not. What love does. What love does not. I am sure that the bride and groom who are standing at the altar, although they won’t remember a word, are thinking… that’s IMPOSSIBLE! And truthfully, it is if we do not know the God who is love.
Although this popularly recited chapter in Corinthians, known as the Love Chapter, is heard at many ceremonies uniting husband with wife, Paul is addressing love as it relates to believers exercising their spiritual gifts in the context of the local church. Each gift is motivated by and expressed with love. If not, it’s a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Yep… I’ve heard it too.
God is love, while the perfect demonstration of God’s love is found in the character and actions of His Son – Jesus. God also pours out His love into our hearts through the person of the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Walking in the Spirit and abiding in Christ gives us the divine opportunity and the empowered capability to live out this love just as Jesus did. The true mark of authentic discipleship is that we are being and doing like Jesus. We live and love like Jesus, who did all things for the glory of His Father.
If love isn’t the driving force behind why we do what we do, then we, as believers, will tend to selfishly and possessively see ourselves as the “gift” instead of the conduit by which God’s gift of love extends through us for the benefit of others. Ministry and service in the context of the local body of Christ is always about God’s glory and others. Although God may choose to use our good works, His desire is that they are generated and administered from a heart that is postured by sacrificial, unselfish, agape love. The love that we can know and deliver when in fellowship with God through His Son, Jesus, and made available through the Holy Spirit. If we truly KNOW God, we also KNOW love.
Paul states that in the God-ordained race among faith, hope, and love, it is LOVE that crosses the finish line and breaks the tape before the others. It stands on the prominent position of the podium, not degrading or belittling those flanked to its side; but simply reminding us that LOVE ALWAYS WINS!
FURTHER REFLECTION:
Who can you love today through your words and actions? Ask God to help you to identify someone who, through you, needs to be a recipient of God’s love. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you seek what He would have you to do.
Loving people may not stop people from hating you, but loving people will stop you from hating them. Ask God to help you to love the unlovely – even those who may have harmed or brought hurt to you. Use the love of Christ’s beaten and broken body on the cross and His blood spilled for you to serve as the perfect reminder of forgiveness and reconciliation that you may need to offer to someone else.
PRAYER:
Dear God, help me to love like the One who loved me enough to give His own life for me. Thank You, God, for loving me so much that You sent your Son to die for me. This sacrificial love that You gave is the exact love that I want to give back to You and to others. Forgive me when I seek Your favor by doing things that aren’t motivated from a heart of love. Help me to understand that I don’t have to gain or earn Your approval by doing the right things, but by believing and trusting in the right Person. Pour Your love out on me so that I may pour it out on others. Amen.
FOR FURTHER STUDY:
John 21:15-19, 1 John 4:7-21, Romans 5:5, Col. 3:14
by John Hogan