What Love Does

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

[Love] rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (1 Corinthians 13:6-7)

TRUE LOVE IS RELENTLESSLY GOOD. Perhaps that should go without saying, but in a world in which people fall in and out of love so easily and often, in which love is often nothing more than the mood of the moment, the enduring and selfless nature of genuine love ought to be highlighted, promoted, and celebrated. Even more, it needs to be taught and demonstrated. We serve an eternal God with eternal love; the fickleness of our own is far too often an unfortunate contrast to his.

God understands the weaknesses of our fallen hearts, but he has done something rather dramatic to undo the fallenness and restore us to his image. We have the potential to love as he loves. At times, that will mean rejoicing over truth, even when it does not work to our own benefit; forgiving the sins of others and covering them from shame, just as God forgave and covered us; seeing the treasure God has put in others rather than focusing on their flaws and sins; defining people by their future as it can be rather than their past as it was; assuming the best, even when the worst is possible; being enormously patient as people struggle through the difficulties of life and the consequences of their own past habits and mistakes; and never, ever giving up hope. After all, is God hopeless about any situation? Of course not. When we are, we are not in sync with him. A heart aligned with his will always focus on a person’s well-being and come alongside that person to help move him or her into God’s blessings and purposes.

You were created for God—to know him and love him, and to enjoy him forever. But part of that purpose is being created for others—to know them and love them, and to enjoy them forever too. That begins now, and it can only happen by demonstrating the kind of love the Father has shown each of his children. Take your cues from him and let your love endure.

{Father, your love is beyond my comprehension but not beyond my experience. Let me know it, feel it, and live it deeply, and draw others into it through me. Amen.