Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
(1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NASB)
Love bears all things.
Love—true love—puts up with everything. Now I’m not saying we’re to be doormats or allow abuse, but we should be willing to bear our spouse's bad mood or our kids’ testiness. We shouldn’t get angry when our friend forgets a coffee date. We should instead love them.
Love is a noun and a verb, you know. We have a feeling of love (noun), but we choose to actively love (verb). I can’t remember where I read it (may have been in a book by Gary Smalley?), but the author wrote how a man came to him and said he didn’t love his wife any more. “What should I do?” he asked. “Just love her.” Confused, the man said again, “But I don’t love her.” And again, the reply was, “Just love her.” This went on a couple of more times, and the man was told to just go and love (verb) his wife. And a marriage was restored.
We choose to love—the verb—even when those around us aren’t being very lovable. That’s why parents can say, “I don’t like what you’ve done, but I still love you.”
My mom is a prime example of that kind of love. For a very long time, I did a lot of things that my mom did not like. But she never stopped loving me. And today, there may be things my husband does that I don’t like, but I love him. I choose to love him every day.
Think of how Jesus loves us. I imagine He doesn’t like a lot of what we do, but He loves us. He loved us enough that “while [we] were still sinners, [He] died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
That’s what it means to bear all things. All things.
No comments:
Post a Comment