What is love?

1 Cor 13 says love is

• patient
• kind
• does not envy
• does not boast]
• is not proud
• is not rude
• is not self seeking
• is not easily angered
• keeps no record of wrongs
• does not delight in evil
• rejoices in the truth
• always protects
• always trusts
• always hopes
• always perseveres
• never fails

The fruit of the Spirit are:

• love
• joy
• peace
• patience
• kindness
• goodness
• faithfulness
• gentleness
• self-control

I’ve been thinking about ‘love’ for a while, and in a conversation on a thread I wrote these thoughts:

“The thing is, the love is no better than the sinner that professes it. I know I don’t love 1 Cor 13…shoot, I’m still working on ‘love is kind’….and to expect that my partner is less human, as in more divine than I am is  to have WAY too high of expectations. I don’t know about ya’ll, but my husband married a sinner, and I married one too. We’re still workin’ our way out of the past things that have got to be taken care of so we can move forward to more wonderful…we had divorce papers on the table 5 months before our 25th anniversary. It AINT easy…but my commitment wasn’t to Jim…my commitment was to God – and as long as HE says stay…my faith is held in the balance. KWIM?”

“It is so much easier to love when you are ‘in love’….those feelings make things easier…but also blind us sometimes! It’s the long haul work that deepens the relationship. Just this weekend, Jim decided to be less than divine…and you know what? I responded in a very less than divine manner! But after 32 years, we KNOW we are going to work through it…so it is safe to have hurt feelings, angry feelings, disappointed feelings…because LOVE is no longer a feeling..it’s a state of being that governs everything else.”

There is that ‘love’ that one feels when one is attracted to the other person, and doesn’t see any faults, because all they can see is the positive.  It could be the beginning of love, it could also be the fruit of lust.  My point is, it’s a FEELING.

The day one get’s saved, there is this feeling of exultation, deliverance from death and resurrected into life!  It’s a wonderful feeling! Walking and talking with God all along life’s narrow way!

Then a trial comes along.  And God doesn’t feel so close by. And it hurts.  Life just happened.  And now, this is the work of working out your own salvation with fear and trembling!  This is the exercise program of our faith – when we don’t ‘feel’ it, when we want to quit because it’s too hard – when everything around us is dark and stormy, and obviously God is busy on the other side of the planet!

THAT IS WHEN FAITH AND COMMITMENT ADD UP TO LOVE.

We love because HE FIRST LOVED US.  When did He first love us? while we were yet sinners.  Job didn’t ‘feel’ God was near.  And Job was not happy that God would not hear his prayer for death!  And in the middle of that dark valley of the shadow of death – God spoke.  His rod and His staff straightened Job out, and then comforted him.

Job loved God before this trial.  And the trial had to be tough enough to refine Job.  And afterward, Job loved God more.  Job never denied God, nor cursed God, but Job struggled with the trial.

In marriage, there are trials.  And it’s in these trials that you work out your OWN marriage with fear and trembling.  You may feel that the other person has abandoned you.  You may want to abandon the other person.  You may even want to kill the marriage with divorce at times.  This is that dark valley of the shadow of death, where REAL marriages are made.  When feelings have NOTHING to do with REALITY.  This is where you practice 1 Cor 13, and this is where fruit is proven.

I don’t always feel saved – but I KNOW that I am.

I don’t always feel loved – but I know I am by God, and I know that my human counterpart tries to love me, as much as I try to love him.  I KNOW that we have chosen love.

We don’t have a choice.  Not if we intend to stay on God’s good side!

We are commanded to love.

WE ARE COMMANDED TO LOVE.

love one another…..

we love because he first loved

freely recieved freely give

love the church

love your neighbor

love your enemies

greater love hath no man but that he lay down his life for his friends

LOVE  is NOT  a feeling.  LOVE IS A STATE OF BEING. LOVE IS A WAY OF LIFE. GOD IS LOVE – and God is NOT a feeling.

And when the first reaction to anything is love, then 1 Cor 13 and Gal 5 will follow in kind.

The first fruit of the Spirit mentioned is LOVE.  And love has a huge definition.  If we just work on being love – all the fruit will flow and life will be a little more like heaven in our hearts.

Thanks for joining me in this journey,

In His hands and under His wings,

~Christi

Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

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