Oscar Wilde, an Irish poet and playwright once remarked: “Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 reminds us: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
A loving heart is said to describe a person who feels or shows love to others. Its unmistakable logistics include the discernible qualities of kindness, empathy, compassion, sincerity, concern, and affection, to name but a few. Love could be said to be a circle of life. What we give, we can also receive. However, God’s love is the most prestigious of any love.
The Bible tells the story of Hosea, a man of God, who is not only faithful in practice, but obedient to God’s wishes. God requests him to marry a sinful woman to demonstrate to the Israelites the love He has for them. Hosea, is also appointed by God to portray the message of repentance to His chosen people. Chapter 3 states: And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.”
Jesus taught us to be kind and to love one-another. Luke 6:35 confirms: “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” Kindness is an important factor in life. If love does not exist in the heart, then neither does kindness, because kindness is an expression of love. Without kindness, knowledge and faithfulness can be lacking, for if we don’t have kindness in our hearts, how can we possibly know or understand God? Hosea, chapter 4 reminds us: “Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.
Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame. They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity. And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.
They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the Lord to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding.
My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore. They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and your brides commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin. Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, “As the Lord lives.” Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the Lord now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture? Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone. When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring; their rulers dearly love shame. A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.”
Life could be considered to be a grand staircase with an infinite number of steps. It has no defined beginning, it has no defined end. It incorporates all of the essentials that we have come to know including beauty and love. It has been said that love is freedom, but to find that freedom we need to climb the stairs. In a metaphorical sense, it gives the ability for one to fly anywhere they wish, in their hearts, in their minds or even in their souls. Or perhaps just to take the initial steps on that giant stairway of life. It enhances faith, it increases awareness, it aids perception. In our efforts to climb, it brings us closer to God. The higher we climb, the more we understand. Martin Luther King Jr; an American minister and activist once remarked: “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.” Galatians 5:13-14 reminds us: For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” God is love and life, and both are inherited from God. 1 John 4:7 confirms: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
We are God’s children and He is our Father in Heaven. Revelation 21:1-5 reminds us: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” The love of God is known to be the greatest love of all. God’s love is always with us, no matter where we are on the stairway of life. Some might erroneously believe that God can only be found at the top of the stairway, but this is not so, because God is on every tread-way that we stand. It might be so that the higher we climb, the more rewarding life becomes, but it is not essential. For God allows us to climb within the limits of our own capabilities. Romans 8:37-39 confirms: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Amen.
