LOVE NEVER FAILS
Text: First Corinthians 13:1-13
If there is any one word in the English language that we have distorted, it is the word love. We often say that we love fried chicken, chocolate cake, scrambled eggs and sausage and so on. We even say that we love this movie, this TV show, that car, this brand of shoes or clothing and we could go on and on. You get the idea. We have often used the word love to describe our feelings about our favorite things.
The real meaning of love is about our strong feelings about others with whom we have a relationship. We use the word love to describe how we feel about God. Throughout the Bible, we see how God exemplifies His love for us. God’s love for us is beyond our comprehension.
Although we might fail from time to time, God never stops loving us. The kind of love that God loves us with is what the Bible refers to as unconditional love. The Greek word for this kind of love is agape. The Greek language has three other words for love.
When I think about the ideal of unconditional love, I tend to think about how these two words are a contradiction. We call this kind of contradiction a oxymoron. The name of a crucial battle in our country’s history is a oxymoron---Civil War. We all know that there is nothing at all civil about war. No one can argue and say that God does not love us unconditionally. There are times when our attempts to be loving in an unconditional way are limited. That is why we are always in need of God¡¦s help to be loving as God is loving. When we forget about God¡¦s unconditional love for us, our love begins to become love that has strings attached. Without godly love, we are nothing .
A young man wrote his sweetheart a love letter: Dear Jennifer, I love you so much I’d climb the highest mountain just to see your smile. I’d swim the deepest river, infested with piranhas, just for one of your kisses. I’d cross the widest sea for one of your hugs. I’d cross the burning desert just to look upon your face. With neverending love, Frank, P.S.: I’ll be over to see you next Wednesday, if it doesn’t rain.
Are you a fair-weather lover? Our whole purpose is to be agents of love; not James Bond type agents of love, but agents whose lives and behavior are ruled by Christlike love.¡(Heather Murray Elkins. The Abingdon Preaching Annual. 1995 Edition. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994, pp.65-66).
GOD’S LOVE FOR US IS UNCONDITIONAL.
God’s unconditional love is not based on our performance. God loves the prodigal sons just as He loves the elder brothers. I once read about a young lady whose parents changed the way that they related to their daughter when she became pregnant out of wedlock. Unfortunately, the change was not for the better. Their love became conditional. That teenage girl needed her parents when she got pregnant more than ever. Yet, they were ashamed of her. In some ways they disowned her. Even some of the members of her church family responded to her differently. God’s love remained unchanged. God’s was heart-broken with her. Unlike her parents God’s unconditional love did not have limits.
God loves us in spite of our mistakes. When we make mistakes, God does not cease to love us. The parable of the prodigal son reveals how great God’s love is for us.
I once talked with a minister at Annual Conference who shared with me the following illustration. One day a child was playing near a mud puddle. In a moment of carelessness he fail in and got muddy. He was heart broken. He knew that his mother would be upset with him because she had told him not to play near the mud. When his mother found out about what her son had done she did not throw him away. Even though we make mistakes, God does not stop loving us and God certainly does not throw us away.
God loves people even if they do not respond to His love. A man went out to a river for a time of quiet meditation one morning. During his meditation he noticed that the river was rising as well as a scorpion that was trapped in the roots of a tree. He tried to release the scorpion and with every attempt it drew back its tail ready to strike. An observer watching this man said, "Don’t you that its is the scorpion’s nature to sting?" The holy man responded, "Indeed it may be his nature to sting, but it is my nature to save. Must I change my nature because the scorpion does not change his?" (Herb Miller. Actions Speak Louder Than Verbs. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989, p. 72).
It is God’s nature to love even if His love is rejected. It is God’s will for us to be like him in that respect (Matthew 5:48).
God does not love us in a way that is nauseatingly sentimental. God loves enough to help us reach our potential. The Bible says, "My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he love, and punishes everyone he accepts as a son"(Hebrews 12:5-6 NIV). It has been said that "discipline involves both correction and instruction".
Without godly love, we are nothing .
OUR LOVE FOR OTHERS SHOULD BE UNCONDITIONAL.
God wants us to love others the same way that He loves us. God wants us to love others unconditionally. Someone has said that "God’s ability to love is released in our availability". God wants us to be walking illustrations of His unconditional love. That is the kind of love that makes change possible.
God wants us to love others unconditionally regardless of how they respond to that love. My father was on the road as ministers often are when he stopped at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. The young lady who waited on him was short tempered and sassy. Instead of reacting to her bad attitude, he tried to relate. Most of us would probably have asked to see her manager right then and there if it had been us. My father was probably tempted to do just that. Now how does one relate to a stranger in a situation like this one? Following the prompting of the Holy Spirit’s, my father related by asking if something was wrong? The cashier responded, "Yeah, my mother just died recently" as she began to weep. When someone is rude to us, our first instinct is to react. It is not hard to react, but it takes self-control with God’s help to truly turn the other cheek.
God wants us to love others without setting limits for our love. There are times when people set limits as to how loving they will be by keeping score of the wrongs. I once read about a lady who was married to an author. Her husband’s reputation as a gifted writer began to grow. His wife began to belittle him in both public and private. She had aspired to be a writer but was not successful in getting anything printed. After 38 years of marriage Thomas Hardy’s wife, Emma died. Following her death, Thomas found a notebook that Emma had kept. He opened it and found the title, "What I Thought Of My Husband". In that book she had kept a record of all her grievances across the span of their 38 years of marriage. He was appalled. He found her records so shocking that he threw the book into the fire. (Paraphrased from Tarbell’s Teacher’s Guide. 86th Annual Volume. Elgin: David C. Cook Publishing Co., 1990, pp. 204-205). One cannot help but to wonder of her death might have been untimely do to her bitter spirit. One also cannot help but to wonder if Emma would have loved Thomas unconditionally if she, too, had been a successful writer. Imagine how you would feel if your spouse had kept a record of all the things that he or she did not like about you that was discovered posthumously. Can you begin to imagine how that might make you feel?
God wants us to us to be better and not bitter. When our love is conditional and keeps score of the wrongs it will make us bitter. It makes us bitter because it makes us a slave to our inability to be forgiving. When we love unconditionally it makes us better people. It makes us better people because we don’t carry baggage from one grievance to another. Unconditional love is rooted in the fact that we forgive others because God has forgiven and forgives us. Without godly love, we are nothing .
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE DOES NOT FAIL BECAUSE IT GOES THE DISTANCE.
The character of God’s love is not only unconditional, but also persuasive. I once read a story about a mother whose love went the distance for her child. The mother in this story went to help out during harvest time. She took her child with her. She was following the custom of harvest time in Scotland, where the women would help. She placed her child in reach. But, as everyone got busy, an eagle came by and snatched the baby in order to make that baby a meal for her eaglets. The eagle took the baby all the way back to its nest. Many of the men made a valiant effort top climb the vertical wall of rock. There was a sailor who then succeeded to ascend to the top of the cliff but to no avail. Finally, the mother Hannah Lamond, herself began that same endeavor against impossible odds. But, she succeeded in getting to the top of that cliff. She got her child while the eagle was trying to beat Hannah back. But, the eagle’s efforts were not as strong as the mother’s desire. When everything else failed, it was her love that found a way to rescue her child. The crowd stared in awe as she came back down almost as easily as she went up. And they began to cheer and to rejoice with her. (A. Naismith, 1200 Notes, Quotes and Anecdotes. Great Britain: Pickering Paperbacks, 1988, pp. 124-125). That is how God’s love is with us. God’s unconditional love will go the distance to save those who are lost. God’s love could not be persuasive in saving the lost if it was not unconditional love. "Dear Friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know Go, because God is love" (First John 4:7). Jesus said "A new command I give you; love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples" (John 13:35). Without godly love, we are nothing. AMEN.
