The Great Romance

SO...one of the most overused passages in the bible is 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8

The whole love is patient, love is kind bit.
And you usually hear this verse recited at weddings so everyone assumes that it's in reference to the love between a man and a woman. Well I think that when Paul wrote that I don't think he was referring to just that type of love (especially since he was celibate). He was referring to the love between all people. Jesus says to 'love' our neighbor, so shouldn't that verse apply to that too.


Love is patient,
Love is Kind.
It does not boast,
it is not proud.
It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
and always perseveres

Love never fails.


Tell me, do you love people like that?
I don't.

I think I struggle the most with not being easily angered and keeping record of wrongs. It's a hard order to fill, but that is the type of love that God has for us, and it's the type of love that God expects other people to have for one another (i.e. His love).


This is one of my favorite verses in the bible because this is when everything clicked for me. You see, before I became a christian, I had this really messed up idea of what love was. Just the environment I grew up in, the people that I hung out with, the movies I watched, the music I listened to, everything told me that love was this emotion that existed to make me feel good and to serve my own needs. The world convinced me that love existed to give me an excuse to hurt other people (Oh, I LOVE him, so that makes it okay if I blow off my friends).


So when I finally did accept Christ, it was very hard for me to understand a God of love when everything I knew about love was a lie from Satan himself. I remember talking to a leader about it at my church and they gave me this verse. I remember reading it and thinking there is no way that I can ever love somebody like that. Being patient all the time? NOT self-seeking? Not keeping record of wrongs? Impossible.


But I came to find that that was the most beautiful part of love: that it is absolutely impossible...without the strength of God...who's very essence is love (1 John 4: 8). I think that was the coolest beginning of my transformation: learning to love myself in the way that God does, learning to love God in a way that is selfless, and learning to love others in a way that is pure. I soon found out that the whole Christianity thing was ALL about love!


The Great Romance.