Thursday, February 19, 2009

Love is...



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. (1 Corinthians 13 ESV)
Further, the passage goes on to describe real love and ends by saying how REAL love never ends. I'm sorry for being so behind on this topic of love since we just had our wonderful Valentines Day several days ago, BUT just like the passage says, REAL love keeps on luvin because it NEVER ends, so in essence, Valentines Day should be everyday.
It is easy to love an incredibly adorable, drooling baby. It is a piece of cake to love your girl friends. It is absolutely wonderful to love your husband or wife! Nevertheless, through my "small" experience (I say small because I still have lots to learn!) I find my love waning for a misbehaving 10-year-old in my Sunday school classroom who just won't stop yelling across the room and disrupting my class. Or I find myself looking around my college campus and meeting people who clearly need Jesus in their life and are chin deep in their sins and I don't see why I should love them regardless. Then there's that young woman, who all she needs is someone to listen to her and acknowledge her presence. All that 10-year-old boy, a sinner, and the young woman have in common is that they all need to be surrounded by love (to clarify: it is love to tell a sinner that they need the Lord and show them through the bible that they are sinning). How come in these and other circumstances, it is such a drag to show love to your neighbor, enemy, and wrongdoer?
Lets learn from Jesus who loved REGARDLESS, with an agape love (an unconditional love).
Even if we do charity work to help the homeless, volunteer at a children's orphanage, or we give away our prized possessions (money, car, etc...) to help someone, and we have all the faith in the world, BUT we don't have love...then like the bible says, WE have gained NOTHING.

4 comments:

Irina said...

Oh my. that was just like a slap in the face, thank you so much. i totally needed that reminder. its hard when people press on you or hate and to love them. thats difficult. even the people who we judge that just passed us thats wrong i literally do that sometimes, and i understand to be closer to God you need to learn how to love, or everyting that you are doing is gonna get you NO WHERE. thank you soo much that was a great reminder, and a great help that i need to love not only those that i want to love, but those that my earthy soul wants to hate. Thanks for the great reminder, God works through great ways!

Victoria said...

I cannot tell you how much this means to me. thank you.

Nat said...

Well said Nadia...praise the Lord...and Vicky...do share how it impacted you...if it's not too personal...Thanx!

pursueing_God said...

amazing article! nadia i was truly not expecting this when i clicked on the "love" but praise God! this is one of the hardest truths to grasp, and even harder to incorporate into the daily life. how easy to love our friends and how hard to love those who have hurt us! yet it is in this kind of love that we are glorifying God the most..and in which we can truly say "by His grace alone!"