Jamie McGuire, an american novelist once wrote, “Love is the most overused word in the English Language. It's confusing to everyone. Some people live their whole lives and never get it right.”
Each day the word love is used in a variety of contexts. One might say, “I love ice cream” or another might say “I love Georgia football” those who are in a relationship or marriage might exchange the phrase “I love you”. There are so many ways that the word love can be used. Scripture has one common theme throughout. From Genesis to Revelation it is God demonstrating His love for us. Except His love runs deeper than maybe our love for ice cream, or our favorite football team. His love is known as agape love, which simply means unconditional love. The love that Christ demonstrated to us is illustrated in many passages throughout scripture. Passages such as John 15:13 where the bible reads, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (c.f. Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:9-11,19; John 3:16).
Demonstrating love can be hard. Love is what made up Christ and should make up us as Christians. Paul makes this point clear in 1 Corinthians 13. This chapter is often referred to as “the love chapter”. In this chapter, Paul explains to us what seems at surface value, easy applications for our lives. However, the things the text exposes to us may be harder for us to live out than we may expect.
Love is putting others’ needs before our own
We see that the love that God expects us to live out is one filled with humility. Notice what Paul says in verse three:
“If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:3
Sacrifice is by far the ultimate act of love (Romans 5:6-8). However, Paul reminds us that we can sometimes make a sacrifice in order to boast rather than out of love. If we sacrifice our time, and money, or even offer our lives as a sacrifice, in order to gain attention, it does no good, nothing is gained.
Paul continues on with the idea that love is not self-centered it is other-focused. In verses, four through six Paul explains what love is and what love is not.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 1 Corinthians 13:4-6
Love is not a habit. It is intentional. You must desire to show somebody love for them to know that you love them. Jesus showed His love for us by demonstrating it. Love starts in the heart. If our hearts are focused on ourselves, then it will be difficult for us to love others. At the core, the love that God expects us to have is one that is expressed through words and actions. These words and actions should be used to encourage, strengthen, and uplift one another. Love should cause us to set aside our ego and allow us to examine how we can best help those around us.
Love Endures
Sometimes in life, it can be hard to love. There are people that are mean, and irritating, and some who may have evil intentions in mind. However, no matter who they are, they too are also subject to the love that Christ expects us to demonstrate. Love does not choose who is the recipient of it. Our love as Christians should be universal. We should love everyone around us, not because they are sweet, cute, or desperate, rather we should love them because they too have a soul. In a world that is torn, we should not love a person based on what they believe, look like, etc. We should love each person because they were created in the image of God, just like we were. Thus, they deserved to be shown love because love was first shown to us.
God has a love that endures. God knew from the beginning that mankind would fall into the trap of sin. He knew that all along He would have to send His perfect Son to live and die for us. He knew that even after the perfect sacrifice was offered that we would still fall short. Yet we serve a God whose love endures forever. His love doesn’t end after we mess up badly. Henceforth, our love for others should not stop when someone does something wrong to us. Instead, we should have a love that endures. This is the type of love that looks past the bad and seeks to show others the story of love that never fails which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our world today is so divided and is in desperate need of true love. The world may offer us many fake prototypes of love, but the true author of love is Jesus and we should look to Him and model our lives after Him so we can love the way He designed us to love. He designed us to love selflessly, faithfully, and intentionally. Are you loving the way Jesus intended for you to love?