Love

“…it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” - 1 Corinthians 13: 6-7

I know. It’s Valentine’s Day.  I’m a hopeless non-romantic, I guess. Don’t get me wrong, I love my wife, Susie. Dearly.  She’s had to put up with me for over 31 years now.

But the passage above is not really about romantic love, although if you are truly in love with someone one would hope and pray that those qualities of not rejoicing at wrongdoing, but rejoicing with the truth; bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things are an integral part of your relationship.  That is the singular reason that this passage gets read so often at weddings.

But the passage really shows a reflection of the qualities that really are the attributes of how God that sees and approaches us.  Because He does not rejoice when we do wrong, but celebrates when truth is shown.  He bears with us through all things (the good, bad, sweet and smelly). He loves when we believe all the things we have been taught about him, and trust, through faith, in the hope that has been presented to us through his Word.

And when I really think about myself and my foibles and shortcomings, I read that love “endures all things.”

All things.  Well that’s good, because I certain the Lord has been tested by myself far, far too often.

It’s about love.  A calling and consuming love of our creator towards the creation. Which is you.  And me.  In spite of ourselves.

God’s love for us “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Happy Valentine’s Day.