Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends on this weekend!
I wonder what happens in your heart when you hear someone use the words ALWAYS or NEVER? When God uses those words, I pay close attention! This past few days we’ve been digging into the gold mine of one of the most powerful statements about love found in any literature ever written, any song ever sung, any painting ever painted! It’s found in the Bible, in a letter written by the apostle Paul to Christians in the city of Corinth in about 56ad. Of course, the author is actually God Himself who led Paul to write this great letter and told him what to write.
So, let’s hear God’s description of God honoring LOVE one last time today: “Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. Love is not rude, it is not self-seeking, love is not easily angered, love keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails!” (1 Cor. 13:4-7 Did you hear God’s ALWAYS and NEVER statements? Let’s dig in my friends…
“Love always PROTECTS.” Would you agree that God honoring love relationships should be the safest places in the world? Men, would you agree one of our greatest roles in the family is PROTECTING those we love from anyone or anything intent on harming them? Most men I know would rise up at that statement, take in a deep breath, maybe even pound their chest and declare “YES, I’m ready to protect my family, the people I love most in the world!!” But wait… “Love always protects” isn’t only about protection from thieves who might break in and steal from or harm your family, or bullies on the playground who threaten your children. It’s about protecting the HEARTS and REPUTATIONS of those you love! Now watch that.
Do you know the tender and vulnerable places of each of those you love dearly so you can step in and protect their hearts from wounding words, or social media threats? But it’s more than that my friends, isn’t it? Do you know that the deepest wounds are usually caused by those who say they love you and say they’ll do anything to protect you…but then they don’t and sometimes they are actually the ones who do the wounding and break the hearts of those they should have protected! Those who feel truly loved feel always protected! Do you? Does your spouse and family feel always protected? Is there anything you say or do which causes those you say you love to feel at risk?
“Love always TRUSTS” Oh my, this is a really big one, isn’t it? Trust is the foundation of love. Trust is the cornerstone of all relationships, especially those we call love relationships like marriage and family. When we begin to NOT trust those we love and those who claim to love us, have you noticed a relationship can unravel very quickly? So, two important questions: What does a person do which builds your TRUST in them and what does a person do which undermines or causes you to lose trust in them?
Have you ever asked your spouse those questions? May I urge you to try it… often? But be ready to hear honest stuff which may cause you to change your behavior so as to NOT undermine the trust of those you say you love! Would your family and closest friends say you are ALWAYS trustworthy? Does God see you and me as ALWAYS Trustworthy? If not, what needs to change? Are we courageous enough to make those changes?
“Love always HOPES.” We live in pressure cooker times, don’t we? Daily you and I are deluged with bad news that could cause us to become pessimistic, could discourage us, maybe even lead us to despair. It’s the bad economic news or the next terrible health scare or unrestrained crime or huge natural disasters which are devastating entire cities or rising global temperatures or nuclear power countries threatening the world or… So where do you turn for HOPE my friends? God says HE will always be faithful in being the ultimate source of HOPE for our human race individually and collectively.
And in this verse God is calling every person who claims to love others to make sure that their love is HOPE giving love…always! Look closely at your love relationships my friends and ask yourself if YOU are a constant source of HOPE into those relationships or are you sometimes the skeptic, the pessimist, the doubter?
Do you remember the Winnie the Pooh character ‘Eeyore’ who was always having a bad day and brought a dark cloud of discouragement to every conversation? So, what, my friends, should be the source of the HOPE you and I should bring into every love relationship we are privileged to be part of? How about this: God our heavenly Father is sovereign over all things at all times, thus NOTHING is happening in our world which is unknown to God or outside of His authority! Or how about this: God is always loving, always merciful, always willing to forgive, always ready to draw us close to Himself and give us HOPE!
So, if you find yourself short on hope in your love relationships, can you look closely to see WHY? What is stealing your hope? If you have trusted Jesus Christ to save you from your sin condemnation and bondage, then you, my friend, should ALWAYS have hope in Jesus! What would change for you and me if WE each were ALWAYS bringing HOPE into every love relationship we have!?
“Love always PERSEVERES.” Now this one is really important, especially in our world where so many people are quitting their commitments, walking away from their marriages and their families. Perseverance is one of the great attributes of authentic Christians. Listen to what Paul wrote to the Christians under Roman persecution: “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us.” (Rom. 5:3-5)
God honoring love perseveres regardless of the headwinds or the opposition or the struggle. Therefore, in love relationships like marriage and family, regardless of the challenges God honoring spouses should be able to look at each other fully trusting that their spouse is first of all committed to honoring Jesus in every aspect of their marriage and secondly is absolutely resolute that they will persevere through any hardship to honor their covenant of marriage and love their spouse unconditionally, unwaveringly to the end of their life! Do you have that confidence in the love relationships you’re committed to?
And then of course the final capstone statement in 1 Corinthians 13:8 “Love never FAILS!” It’s true… God’s love never fails. God’s love is always reliable, always trustworthy, always pure and powerful. God’s love is the pattern, the standard and so God calls us in these verses in 1 Corinthians to the same type of love as HE pours out to us. As we accept God’s love, God expects us to understand it, appreciate it and imitate it as we then pour our love out on others.
Love never fails to HOPE.
Love never fails to TRUST.
Love never fails to PERSEVERE.
Love never fails to SERVE.
Love never fails to be PATIENT.
Love never fails to be KIND.
Love never fails to be HUMBLE.
Love never fails to LISTEN with COMPASSION.
Love never fails to PROTECT.
Love never fails to be FAITHFUL to promises made. Love never fails to be HONEST and TRUTHFUL.
Love never fails to invite Jesus INTO every aspect of the situation and relationship.
Love never fails to FORGIVE.
Love never fails to PRAY.
Can you add a few more such statements my friends? And as you and I look closely at all our love relationships, are we courageous enough to ask the Holy Spirit to show us how we can improve the strength and vitality of those relationships?
I think it’s time to get really practical and I’d like to invite you to take a piece of paper and start listing your most valued relationships which are depending on your love to be God honoring love. Your spouse. Your children. Your parents. Your employees. Your friends. Who else…? And next to each name I urge you to put several of the attributes which are strengthening that relationship and ask God to show you if there is any vulnerability in that relationship.
Then I urge you to ask God to show you what more you can do to protect and build up that relationship to be even better than it is right now! What would happen to all our relationships, my friends, if you and I lived 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 consistently in EVERY relationship? And what’s preventing that from being our reality, for the rest of our lives? Let’s take some time right now to pray over our relationships my friends.
Today’s Scripture is 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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