We've come to the end of February and see that Valentine’s Day ads and banners are still up on some roads. Merchants have also taken the opportunity to extend their promos till the end of the month. Just like any event when festivities die down, things go back to normal and the previous excitement fades to good or forgettable memories.
After celebrating “love” this month, what’s the takeaway?
We have given love our own definitions, conformed them to our standards, and used them as a means to an end turning it into a word with a knotty meaning.
Different ideologies and pop culture likely contributed to this convolution too. Before we resign love to what it has evolved because of human and world standards, let’s look at this first:
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.
The description of love you just read is from The Message translation of 1 Corinthians 13:3-8a. It puts everything in perspective, and if you take a closer look, you’ll see that it actually portrays God.
He will never give up on you and me.
He cared so much for us He gave His son Jesus Christ so we could be with Him now and forever. He doesn’t envy what we have. After all, He provided everything we needed. Remember the creation story? He prepared the sky, earth, sea, provisions, and animals in the first five days. He made sure man’s home was perfect before creating man on the sixth day.
He is very patient and doesn’t easily get angry at us. A strong example of this is how He continued to show mercy and forgiveness toward the nation of Israel despite their unfaithfulness. They constantly served the gods of Egypt and all the other nations they came in contact with which ensnared them in many troubles. Whenever the Israelites repented however God would immediately come to their rescue.
It pains Him to see us suffer which is why He has so many promises in the Bible about how we are to live life fully.
He has always had our best interest in mind.
When we chose to put our trust in Jesus Christ and started to live according to His ways, all condemnation about our past sins has been literally silenced. Dangling our past in our faces is not His style. In fact, He reminds us to focus on the future and the great plans He has for each one of us. His love is not momentary but eternal.
Everything that you’ve read is the purest and most encompassing definition of love. If you haven’t gotten it yet, love is from God because He is love. That truth remains despite any turn of events in our lives. Though we don’t feel it sometimes, God is love and His love for us will always be there. It doesn’t depend on feeling or circumstance – God loves you. That is the takeaway.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE,
copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All
rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
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