I Corinthians 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Love for Your Life
Based on statistics, how long will your marriage last? Based on the history of most of the churches you know, how long will your church be here after you are gone? It’s discouraging to see the institutions that God has ordained and designed not living as long as God intends. Your relationships will be no stronger than the ethics that animate them, whether it is your serving in your church or whether it is your marriage. I Corinthians 13 describes the qualities of the kind of love that God wants you to have in your home, at your church, and throughout your life.
Love provides the profit to every gift. Paul basically says, “If I do not have love, I am nothing. It profits me nothing.” Love is more than what you do; it is the way you do it. It is a decision you make that motivates what you do. Some man says, “Well, I told my wife I loved her the day we married, and I bring home a paycheck and provide for my family, isn’t that enough?” No, it is not. We are talking about an attitude based on a decision. Everything that God has enabled me to do for others is beneficial because of the love behind it, the love of God.
Love is described primarily in terms of what it does and not by how it feels. Love includes feelings, there’s no doubt about that, but in verse 5 we see how love behaves, how love can affect our feelings, and how it is not easily provoked. Love involves how we behave, how we feel, and how we think, but love is a choice. Feelings are but a caboose; let love be the engine. Someone says, “Well, I don’t love my wife anymore.” Well, decide that you will. Do what is right, take action, ask for God’s help, and the feelings can follow.
Love is shown to those who are not loveable. Verse 4 says that love “suffers long.” It is not just patient, but suffers long. It is “not easily provoked” in verse 5. It bears and endures all things in verse 7. Why would these qualities be needed if the people in your life were always agreeable and wonderful to be with? Love is needed by people and from people when those who we love do not deserve it. I don’t deserve God’s love, but God loves me nonetheless.
God’s love is not fickle. Again, verse 4 tells us that love suffers long, verse 8 reminds us that it never fails, and verse 13 says, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” Long after your value is diminished, if it is based merely on you gifting, love can still be there. I can still love people even when the way I can provide for them may have diminished.
There is a lot more to love than what we can see in one chapter. However, if I want the kind of dynamic relationships that God intends, I need to take heed to this love and the qualities that describe it. This love is a decision of obedience to God and of dependence upon God. It is empowering because it is based on one’s submission to God and not upon one’s surrender to feelings.