4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.
I have asked myself this question several times: “Is it possible for a human to meet all these requirements above? My answer to my question is simply that only God Almighty has met all these characteristics conveniently because it was the kind of Love He had towards us before He even formed Man. Before He formed Man, He pre-determined to love Man unconditionally and it has been so and will remain so.
How many times have we offended Him today alone? Yet He loves us without keeping record of wrongs. He’s been patient with us, He’s been kind towards us, He cannot envy us because we have nothing He can envy, He NEVER FAILS!
Now do you see why it is seemingly impossible to have this kind of love for one another? But wait! There is something that God has empowered us to be-like Him! So how come we can’t be like Him? Because the Devil hides just one fact from us-the fact that our Creator loves us and only wants our good! The Devil has redefined love and that is where he is misleading us. Are you still wondering why there seems to be so much strife, anger and divorce in the world? Whose definition of love do you believe in? There are many things that we can do, but because the Devil makes us believe that we cannot love, we accept ourselves as not being capable of loving.
So how exactly can we go about finding true love? God wants us to love one another. He wants us to find a partner with whom we would go on a life-long journey of finding true love. That is why He instituted that powerful thing called Marriage. It is only in marriage that we are truly tested in all the things mentioned in 1 Cor. 13:4-10. Marriage is the highest manifestation of Love that can exist between humans.
However, there is a prerequisite to marriage-God wants us to seek all the true qualities of Love in Him first before even attempting to love a fellow human being. So, the truth is that you must know how it feels to love God first before you should attempt to love another. When you love God you would be patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud, you’ll honour others, you won’t be self-seeking, you won’t be easily angered, you will keep no record of wrongs, you will not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth, you will always protect, trust, hope and persevere. In the end, you will never fail!
Have you noticed how there is always a ‘but’ attached to our “I love yous”? “ I love you but you betrayed me”, “ I love you but I fell in love with someone else”. Our “I love yous” even permit past tenses-“I loved you”. With God, it is never like that. He has never, and will never, stop loving you.
The real love we all ought to aspire to is Love Unconditional and that is only possible in God. That kind of love is always fresh, new every second of the day! True love leaves no pain, it is when we allow all kinds of emotions ruin our image of love that pain comes and we simply can’t trust love anymore. We shut the door of our hearts and when true love comes by, we are still too busy hurting to notice true love knocking.
Love Unconditional still lurks, waiting for us to acknowledge Him. Whatever we do on earth, He had loved us first and there is nothing we can do about that. We just need to reach out and touch God first before we reach out to touch others. If we reach out to touch others before we have encountered God, we are more likely to touch them with baggage of past experiences and hurt. But when we go to God first, He not only shows us how to love others the way He has loved us, He also heals us of all hurt in the same breath.
What God wants is for us to reach that point where we love others the way He loves us. He wants us to say “You did me wrong but I still love you” not “I love(d) you but you did this to me so…”. The ‘but’ is always in the middle but where you place the “I love you” is what matters! Do you place it after or before the ‘but’?
God wants Love to end everything, not that we start with love and end up with some other undesirable emotion like pain, fear, anger or hate. He knows that Love is a life-long journey that we have to learn in our relationships with others so He does not expect us to love immediately like we so often do. He expects us to love gradually-to come into love, not just to ‘fall in love’. Love is the final destination of life’s whole journey and He wants us to end up at it. He waits patiently for us to love Him because He knows that we ARE capable of loving Him. Let’s all arrive at Love. He waits for us at that end.
2 comments
Wow. but how possible is it to love another when the love is not being reciprocated? Does that also fall under loving unconditionally?
That is unconditional love, pure and simple!
Post a Comment