What Does Love Look Like?
“Let us love one another for love is born of God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God for God is love.” - 1 John 4:7-8
With today being Valentine's Day, love can either be a satisfying or sensitive subject depending on the season you’re in. Love can bring butterflies or bitterness, feelings of passion or pain. However, today’s holiday makes me stop and ask, are we looking at love all wrong? What if love wasn’t a feeling or something that we can feel void of, but instead someone who can make us whole and complete?
When you look at today’s verse, what do you see? Do you see praise for those who have someone on this earth to love, or hints that you're missing out if you’re not sharing your life with a significant other? No. We see God and his commission to love all others as He loves us because He is love. In the verse above, God and love are both mentioned five times. Not only is the word count equal, but we’re also blatantly told that God and love are one.
Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and replace the word love with Christ. Doesn’t it fit like a glove?
Christ is patient, Christ is kind, Christ does not envy, Christ does not boast, Christ is not proud. Christ is not rude, Christ is not self-seeking, He is not easily angered, Christ keeps NO record of wrongs. Christ doesn’t delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Christ never fails.
We can love others, and sometimes most importantly ourselves well because we have Christ in our hearts, and He himself is love!
Whether you’re single, engaged, married, divorced, broken-hearted or in a honeymoon phase, the truth remains that Christ loves you with an all-consuming love that will never change based on your health, job, marital status or circumstance. We can rejoice in the fact that we are adored by the ULTIMATE Valentine who will never let us down or fall out of love with us, and He will give us the power to show His unconditional love to others even when we disagree, or if they’re different or when they’ve hurt us.
Weekly Challenge: write out 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and use it as a love letter to Christ, inserting his name in each place of love. Use the time and paper space to thank Him for his unchanging character.
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