Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever….
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NLT)
Happy Valentine’s Day! When you were a young child, you probably celebrated this day by trading cute little valentines that promised your love forever. But forever usually meant only until the day that you were taunted, or until the day that you saw someone that you liked better. Face it, in elementary school, forever was often just a fleeting moment of time—a day, a week, a month, or a year.
Maybe if you didn’t think that anyone was looking, you might have even been brave enough to slip a valentine, or a love note, to someone that you secretly admired. Puppy love—wasn’t it fun. However, that special someone may not have felt the same as you did, or worse yet, maybe they were interested in somebody else. In that case, you quickly forgot your puppy love and replaced it with disdain. That type of love was just a passing fancy and not a real love.
Real love is permanent, unfailing, and dependable. It does not quickly fade away on a whim. Unfortunately based on today’s staggering divorce statistics, many marriages are not founded on real love. Rather they are just short-term infatuations that are swiftly forgotten.
God’s plan for marriage was the joining of two individuals (of the opposite sex) for a lifetime—not just fleeting moments of time. Marital partners are to be dependable and committed to each other, through both good times and bad. In fact, they are to be united and become as one. Jesus said, “…they twain shall be one flesh” (Matthew 19:5). He also said, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6).
In addition to loving our spouses, Jesus told us that we must love the Lord, our God, with all of our heart, soul, and mind. Further, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. He said everything depends on these two requirements, love of God and love of neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40). But what was Jesus talking about? What type of love must we show towards God and towards our neighbors?
God modeled that type of love for us. He showed us how much He loved us by sending His only Son to be the blood sacrifice for our sins (John 3:16, and 1 John 4:9-10). God loved—so He gave. Too many times, we say we love—so we can take.
Love is not about taking, it is about giving. True dependable love will motivate you to give of yourself to others. It may require the giving of your money, your time, or simply your prayers. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is patient and kind, it never gives up and it endures through everything. True love lasts forever, and forever is a long time.
God loves you with a dependable, enduring love. He will love you through your goods times and your bad times. There is no end to His love because He is love. As a child of God, you too must love with a dependable, enduring love. “But anyone who does not love does not know God—for God is love” (1 John 4:8, NLT).
Today ask yourself these questions:
Do I love others?
Is my love dependable and enduring?
How do I show my love for others?
God, please fill our hearts with a love for our neighbors. Let our love be true, dependable, and eternal.
Three key concepts:
1. Love is dependable.
2. God loved so He gave.
3. If we are truly of God, then we too must love.
