In other words, love needs an object.
WE are the object of God’s love! You… me… the world. God loves US!
Now we are to love like God loves. First of all, to love HIM! (Because He first loved US!) Then, to love our neighbor… our brother… even all those whom God loves, just like God does.
Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, and notice that all of those traits or evidences of love do not occur in a ‘bubble’. They all require some kind of action or feeling toward SOMEONE ELSE… Specifically, someone else who doesn’t think like you think, and does NOT make your life pleasant.
Charity suffereth long… Suffereth what, from whom?
Is kind… seeketh not her own… envieth not… vaunteth not itself… not puffed up… not easily provoked… bears all things… believes all things… hopes all things… endures all thing… None of these have any meaning apart from interactions with someone else. That someone else could range from a brother who just isn’t quite up to the image of Christ yet… to someone who is an avowed enemy of Christ.
Jesus said that even the sinners love those who love them. (Matthew 5:46 & Luke 6:32) That’s easy love. But REAL love… God’s kind… is when the love given, is not dependent on the love received.
If we were all operating in God’s kind of love, would we be trying so hard to AVOID those situations in 1 Corinthians 13… like suffering, bearing, enduring… that REQUIRE the exercise of that kind of love?
Of COURSE, we all want to be married to someone who thinks like we think, and likes what we like. But are DIFFERENCES grounds for divorce? Or, are they rather OPPORTUNITIES to give love, and live love?!
How about the church? Of COURSE, it’s wonderful to be a part of a church where everybody thinks like we think, and believes exactly what we believe. But are differences grounds for a spiritual separation? Should we be searching for, or starting, a new church (speaking in general terms, for the whole body of Christ)… where love is so easy, even a sinner could do it; and the exercising of the 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love is unnecessary… because everyone thinks alike? Though that kind of unity WILL happen someday, what do we do NOW, before it happens, to help MAKE it happen?
There are millions of people in this world who are the casualties of failed marriages. Many of those believe that their ‘differences’ were the cause. They blame anything and everything, except the lack of God’s kind of love in their own hearts. For most in the world, it’s not surprising, since they have never opened up, and experienced God’s love. You can’t give it, if you haven’t received it. Those who HAVE received it, need to freely give it.
When God’s kind of love is operating in a person, differences and disappointments in a spouse are just opportunities to live out the loving nature of our heavenly Father. With a lesser kind of love, one can only suffer so long… and bear so much… before hope fails, and it seems like there no sense in even trying to restore the relationship. It looks like it would be all pain… no gain… so forget it!
Charity NEVER fails!
Many principles in a marriage apply also in the church. There are many of God’s children who have been let down or betrayed by members of Christ’s own church; and who are hesitant or afraid to risk the personal ‘pain’ of a 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love. It has become hard for them to ‘believe all things, and hope all things’.
The ‘first’ commandment… love the Lord… is relatively easy, because God is so LOVABLE! He is just perfect! And He loved us first! The ‘second’… love your neighbor, or your brother… is a lot tougher. The body of Christ today just happens to be made up of a whole lot of people who don’t think like we think; don’t do things the way we would; don’t believe what we ‘know’ to be the truth; and just don’t give us enough love and respect and appreciation.
The temptation is to protect ourselves. Put up a guard. Don’t trust anybody. Never get married. Never commit yourself to a church… (a) body of Christ. Just get in your bubble, and ‘love God’. Spare yourself the sacrifice associated with ‘giving yourself’ for a person, or people. Enjoy life. Have fun. …but no wedding band.
The problem with that line of thinking, is that God recognizes your love for Him (whom you’ve not seen), as demonstrated by your love for your brother (whom you HAVE seen). (See 1 John 4:7-21)
Jesus said, “…Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” [Matthew 25:40] But then Jesus addresses not only what you DID do, but what you DIDN’T do to the least of His brethren. [Verse 45] Would I want to crawl into my cozy little bubble, and isolate myself from those ‘least’ brethren… and Jesus?
Our willingness to take on the personal costs of loving our brother is how we not only show God our love for Him; but also bring the transforming love of God into our brother’s life… AND God’s grace into our own!
I want that. I NEED that. And I feel like God is just beginning to show me… and show us… how that works.
God’s great love for us COST Him something very dear… His only begotten Son. That same love for us cost the Son His life! Can we think that our love for our brother, sister, husband, wife, neighbor… even sinners, will not likewise cost us in some very personal way?
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