“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. Love never ends.” 1 Cor. 13:4-8a
Devotional Thought For The Day
How difficult love really is for fallen, sinful human beings. There is no mention of circumstances which alter or modify the definition of love. It is what it is. Yet there are countless circumstances that we encounter every day which evoke reactions contrary to love – and all of these reactions feel very “normal” and justified. Every day our patience is tested, and we are tempted to react to the behavior of others with coldness if not rudeness. We are often arrogant to think that we have it right and should be in control. We are irritated, often by many things in the course of a day, and find ourselves being “irritable.” We struggle with many things that make us resentful – though we try to put these things out of mind and get past them. Then there are the “little” wrongdoings that we do rejoice in, when someone gets put in their place, or something bad happens to someone who has always been a nuisance and pain to us. There are many things like this – off-color jokes, listening to gossip, agreeing with the conventional wisdom spouted by others when we know it conflicts with Scripture. Love is quite difficult.
However, the hardest aspects of love – those which we often conclude to be completely absurd – are “bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and enduring all things.” This grates completely against all of our natural instincts. Our reaction when others cause affront and pain to us is to reject them not bear with them, to give up on them rather than continuing to trust them, to relegate them to the garbage dump rather than hoping for them and hoping in them, and to isolate ourselves from them so that we no longer have to endure them. In other words, we conclude that the “relationship is toxic” and has to end. However, in that “love never ends” we have to recognize that we have ceased loving whenever we make such determinations about others and our relationship with them. This is painful and hard, but love, which “rejoices in the truth,” is very difficult and hard.
God’s love, however, is not difficult and is not difficult to live in. We confess our sins and He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [1 John 1:9] God is love, and so He is patient and kind toward us, generous and humble, always rejoicing in good and truth, bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things for us, and enduring all things – and His love for us will never end! Because love is hard for us we also find it difficult to truly grasp and understand God’s love for us – and perhaps among our greater sins is our unbelief, which is an implicit accusation that God is not love, that He is not consonant with love in how He feels about us and deals with us. For this we also confess our sins and rejoice that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sins.” [1 John 1:7] And through repentance we must continue to live in God’s love, and absorb the reality of His love, and allow His love to soften and change our hearts, transforming us and renewing us to love as He has loved us. [John 13:34]
It helps to recognize just how difficult love is for us, how our sinful nature constantly militates against love and compels us not to love. This enables us to contemplate more deeply how wondrous God’s love for us truly is. And His love also informs us about the necessity to love – as painful and difficult as this may be. We understand that to deny love to others is to deny His love for us – “with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” [Matt. 7:2] To “judge” others and reject them rather than loving them with the love and mercy God has poured out upon us is certainly not a very good idea – for it is a tacit rejection of God’s love and mercy, without which none of us has any hope. So we continue repenting of our sin, especially our lack of love, and we continue to rejoice in the truth of God’s gracious love and forgiveness, His patience and mercy, and His ongoing trust and hope in us, and we finally are compelled and enabled to love others in this same way. Love is difficult, impossible for those who do not know and live in God’s love. But with God all things are possible, and so is love for those who live in His love.
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus, the thoughts and judgments of our sinful hearts are clearly contrary to love, and involve a denial and rejection of Your great love for us. Forgive us especially for these grievous sins and the harm our lack of love has so often inflicted. Grant us ever greater and clearer understanding of Your love, that You are love, that we might be comforted, assured, and renewed in love. Remind us when love is difficult and painful that we still need to love, and through genuine repentance and faith in Your love enable us both to will to love and to love. Amen.