By Greg Ruble
One of the things I get to do as a pastor is officiate weddings. There’s a go-to scripture in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 that describes the kind of love it takes if you want your marriage to endure all life brings. Take a second and read it.
It’s a lofty definition of love but one that will never fail if we are able to pour it out from our lives. To do that requires us to be selfless, forgiving, sacrificial, forgetful, interested, humble and faithful among other things.
You might think, “Well, I’ll never be able to live up to that!” There’s good reason to feel that way; this love is not a human kind of love.
This is a higher love. It’s a dynamic definition of God’s love for us. God is patient and kind with us. He doesn’t envy our lives or try to one up us. God isn’t offensive or bigheaded with us.
He doesn’t force His ways in our life or get irritated by us. He doesn’t get offended by us. He doesn’t take pleasure when bad things happen to us and rejoices when truth comes out and when light shines in our life.
He bears all of our burdens, He is faithful to cheer us on and he roots for our success. Even when we fail, He endures all of it.
When you think about God’s love for you, this is the kind of love we are talking about. Whether or not you believe in Him! Whether or not you love Him back. Whether or not you have fallen and can’t get back up, whether you are on fire for Him or your heart is just a smoldering wick.
God loves you. He loves you with a patient, kind, generous, gracious, encouraging, strong, fierce, never-ending kind of love. You don’t have to earn that love; you don’t have to live perfectly or even just try to be a good person. God loves you like that no matter who you are, what you’ve done, where you have been or how you’re loving Him back today.
John, who wrote the gospel of John, referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Then he wrote 1 John later on, a letter all about love. In 1 John 4:19 it says, “We love because He first loved us.”
John knew he had been loved with a 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love because he had received it by faith through Jesus Christ. It was the motivating and empowering factor to love others in his life.
Do you know this love? If your life is in need of a makeover, start here; receiving the love of God in your heart will enable you to pour it out on others. Understanding that you you are loved like this right now makes it possible to love other people like that. It will transform your relationships, and it will transform you.
Greg Ruble is lead pastor of Living Streams Community Church in McCordsville. This weekly column is written by local clergy members. Send comments to [email protected].
