I missed something about LOVE…
In the last weekend I realized I missed something crucial on the way on discovering how to live a life of “Authentic Love”.
I found people trying to force love, and that some even suggests something MUST be done in love… This angered me, as it can not be forced unto anyone… Love is a choice and if forced, can we still call it love? (Or is that more slavery?)… That is when I decided to go back to the basics of it.
What is love?
Love is fairly well defined in the Bible, and the most popular of all is found in 1 Corinthians 13. I will be going through a part of 1 Corinthians 13 to see if I can set a basic definition of it…
Definition :
However if I look at the Oxford Dictionary… Here are some of Oxford’s definitions:
1. An intense feeling of deep affection
1.1. A strong feeling of affection and sexual attraction for someone.
1.2. Affectionate greetings conveyed to someone on one’s behalf.
1.3. A formula for ending an affectionate letter.1.4. A personified figure of love, often represented as Cupid.
2. A great interest and pleasure in something.
3. A person or thing that one loves.
3.1. A friendly form of address.
3.2. (a love) Used in affectionate requests.
4. (in tennis, squash, and some other sports) a score of zero; nil.
So, I don’t know about you, but these definitions feel like they are barely touching the depth that I believe there is in love.
1 Cor 13:1-3
If I speak human or angelic languages but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Cor 13:1-3)
What is the importance of Love here? In these three verse it says that we are nothing without it… If we want to do anything without LOVE, we should just not do it… We can teach, prophecy, preach, pray for the sick, raise the dead or even help a friend without it, and it would mean we just wasted our time… Love is always expressed and the recipient of it will be able to experience it, in the way we do it… IT CANNOT BE FAKED…
1 Cor 13:4-7
Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth. Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things. (1 Cor 13:4-7)
Now it can be defined and the fruits thereof would be seen in our everyday life, if we decided to live an “Authentic Love” life daily. We may get angered , as I did during the weekend. Yet, this does not mean that we do not have LOVE… It is seen in the way we live everyday, not in that moment that we were week and messed up. Unlike our words, with which we can say whatever we please. Our actions will always follow our believes, even when our words may not follow it. So there is much more value in the actions that show that we love people, than the words…
If we decide to live a life of “Authentic Love”, we decide to always love first. Thus we act in it, and we initiate it. I am referring to a something that is for everyone, an everyday choice to think of a person’s feelings before we act in someway or say something that could hurt the person.
THIS IS NOT SOMETHING WE CAN FORCE UPON PEOPLE. RATHER IT IS SOMETHING THAT WE LIVE AND IN THAT WAY WE SHOW LOVE. EVERYONE WILL KNOW WE ARE DIFFERENT IF WE ACT IN THIS WAY.
A child’s response
This following image is very significant to me…
And although the kid is talking about a dog, he has a pretty valid point of how we should be and of how God is… God is always there, even if we stray far away… And as soon as we come back, He is like the father of the lost son… He runs to greet us, even while we are still far off…
We ought to be like this to those around us as well… Even if they go astray, we should wholeheartedly pray for them… And when they come back to Christ we celebrate with them. We embrace them and we care for them…
This is what is means to live a life of “AUTHENTIC LOVE”. God bless…