The Best Medicine

Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:8

Love, true love,” wrote psychiatrist Karl Menninger, “is the medicine for our sick old world. If people can learn to give and receive love, they will usually recover from their physical and mental illnesses.” He’s right; but when the Bible talks about love, it isn’t talking about the glossy, romantic, starry-eyed passion portrayed in songs or movies. It’s talking about a reasoning, redeeming, choosing type of sacrificial love. It is the power that moves us to respond to someone’s needs with no expectation of reward.

That kind of love is preeminent; it never fails.

An evangelist wrote about a wise physician who told a young doctor, “I’ve been practicing medicine for a long time. I’ve prescribed many things. But in the long run, I’ve learned that the best medicine is love.”

“What if it doesn’t work?” asked the young man.

“Double the dose,” replied the doctor.

If things are tense at home, if you’re having trouble with a loved one, if someone has insulted or hurt you, love that person anyway. And if that doesn’t work, double the dose.