Valentine's Day is past. A day to celebrate love. As a romance author, and just someone who appreciates romance, I enjoy celebrating with my husband. I also enjoy the chance to tell my kids that I love them. It's an excuse to tell them something that I hope they already know.
In this world though, I think we've confused what love actually is. We love our family, love our jobs, love our coffee, love our pets, love our homes, love our clothes, love a celebrity - the list goes on and on. Honestly, we've watered down love to the point that people can't see what it really is. It's a feeling that can disappear as quickly as it started. It's passion that can fizzle out. It's whatever we want to make it because who is anyone else to tell you that it's not love.
Here is what love is. "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (1 Corinthians 13:4-7) This is more than romantic love. This is true love. It's a love that never, ever fails. I don't know about you, but sometimes I'm not patient with those I love. Sometimes I can be envious of someone I love. Sometimes (a lot of times) I can insist on my own way. And way too often I'm irritable. So this love cannot come from within myself. I don't have the capacity in me to love in this way. Fortunately, it doesn't have to. This love comes from God. This passage is a portrait of what true love looks like and it looks a lot like Jesus Christ. He was patient and kind with his followers. He didn't envy anyone because He was God, but He also didn't boast about His position. Instead He humbled Himself. He was never arrogant or rude. He didn't insist on His own way, but did the will of His Father. He bore all the sin of the world and endured the cross. That's true love.
Humans tend to love people who love them in return, but God loved us when we were still His enemies, lost in our sin. Humans can stop loving others, but God's love never ends. Humans have a capacity for love, but God is love. Humans think that love is indulgent, but God knows that sometimes love is chastisement and discipline. Humans can love their things, their beliefs, their status more than people, but God knows that there is nothing more precious than a human soul.
I don't know about you, but I want that love. As much as I love my husband, he isn't capable of giving me that kind of love. He's human and sometimes he won't demonstrate all those attributes. He may get impatient with me or irritable. He may even be rude or unkind at times. And I can't give him that perfect love any more than he can give it to me. We can only get that love from God.
I want to demonstrate that love though. I want to love my family this way, my husband, my children. I want to love my neighbors, my church family, strangers with this kind of love. I even want to be able to love my enemies with this kind of love, because that's what Jesus called us to do. But I can't do it on my own. In Galatians chapter 5, love is the first virtue listed in the fruit of the Spirit. When I am close to Christ, and allowing the Spirit to work in my life, I can demonstrate this love. When I try to do it on my own, I will fail. I love Him, because He first loved me. When I love Him, His love can shine through my life. When His love shines through me, the world will notice, because it will be unlike anything they've ever known before. This is love.
