love

                                 LOVE

                                         1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-8

How is love a precept, a principle, and a person? What is the difference between love that is self-centered, condition-centered, and other-centered? What are the marks of mature love, especially in a marriage relationship?

An accomplished rabbi once posed a question to Jesus that many rabbi before him had debated. “Teacher,” he said, “which command in the law is the most important?” “’Love the lord your God,’” Jesus answered, “’ with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and most important command. And the second command is like the first: ’love your neighbor as you love yourself ‘” (Matthew 22:36-39).

The greatest precept in the law , according to Jesus, is the command to love. He even went so far as to say,  “love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. If you do this, you will be true children of your father in heaven”( Matthew 5:44-45).the precept is clear: love-for God, for our spouses, for our neighbors, even for our enemies-is commanded. “this is the teaching you have heard from the beginning,” according to the apostle John. “We must love each other”  (1 john 3:11).

Like all precept, these commands point to a principle: love for God and love for others. The principle is larger than the precept. We might dodge or circumvent the precept by clever maneuvering , the way we might take advantage of a loophole in the tax law, but we cannot avoid the principle. Regardless of whether a specific precept addresses a certain decision or behavior, the principle of love for God and others dictates whether our actions are right or wrong ,because love is a principle of values.

Ultimately , of course ,love is a virtue not simple because it is commanded , nor even because it is a principle God values, but because God is like that. The precept and the principle both point to the person of God himself. “God is love”(1 john 4:16b). he loves us “with a love that will last forever”(Jeremiah 31:3). He loves us so much that he gave his Son to die for us (john 3:16). He loves us so much that, while we were still sinners-displaying enmity toward God- Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). He is the kind of God who loves even those who curse him, because love is his nature. It is not something he does, it is something he is.

First Corinthians 13:4-8 is perhaps the best known text on love in the Bible.it is certainly the greatest description of love ever penned. but it is not a definition of love. The only real definition of love-the kind of love God is-found in the Bible is that of Christ’s death on the cross. Christ did not die for us because of what he could give. True love is spelled G-I-V-E.

Our model of mature love is Jesus Christ. His love was willing to sacrifice. He was a living example of his teaching on love: “the greatest love a person can show is to die for his friend”(John 15:13). In Ephesians 5:1-2, Paul emphasized our need “to be like him. Live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself to us as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice to God.”

First Corinthians 13:4-8 is a description of how a mature love, the kind modeled by Jesus Christ in his sacrificial death on our behalf, behaves in  relation to others. Mature love is not self-centered, or condition-centered, but condition-less and other-person centered. With this kind of love, we will stop demanding to have everything our way. We will put no conditions on our love and put the interests and desires of the loved person before our own, just as Jesus did for us.

In self-centered love, our purpose is to gain something in exchange for our love . In condition-centered love, our love is contingent upon or based upon something the other person is or has. In the first case, love lasts only as long as I get something out of it . In the second case, it lasts only as long as you have the qualities that attracted me to you in the first place.

I’m happy to say there is still another kind of love. It is without condition, or condition-less love. This love says, “I love you in spite of what you may be like deep down inside. I love you no matter what may change about you . I love you, PERIOD!” the reason I like to call this third type of love condition-less rather than unconditional is that each of us is restrained and limited by our nature, which is selfish. Only God through Jesus Christ has demonstrated a total unconditional love.

First Corinthians 13 is not the final word on love; God’s love is shown in countless ways throughout the Bible. However, I challenge you to take the qualities of mature love found in this passage and make an effort to implement them in your life and in your relationships with others.