“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” (NLT) 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love!!! Such a small word yet packed with powerful meanings, expectations, opportunities, challenges and to mention but a few. The 13th Chapter of Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians has well been elaborated as the love chapter and one that has equally been abused in terms of use by our generation today. Love, we agree is the greatest thing and that which holds all things together even in the mist of trials. Many couples have relied on this chapter and whilst some marriages have been saved because of it, some have broken due to the fact that, people cannot fathom the possibility of such existing love.

Truly, such love exists. Those who experience such love in their lives, be it in their relationships, marriages, businesses, family life, etc., are those who have really understood the essence of this chapter. The opening of the chapter (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) helps us to understand that, even if we can do all the extraordinary things, and we do not have such love as this chapter teaches, we are nothing. The question is “who will give himself to be burnt and will not do it out of love? Who will sell his belongings and give to the poor without doing it out of love?” Your guess is right; they all will confess doing it out of love though others might have done them out of hypocrisy and desire to be praised by men.

But this love chapter is about a higher call of love. Love that is " … patient and kind… is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude… does not demand its own way... is not irritable, and … keeps no record of being wronged. …does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  …never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NLT).

Surely, you can agree that we do not stand a chance of meeting these criteria of love. How then do we live it? It is therefore easy to believe the critics of the possibility of such love and give up. But I have learnt that this is possible because this LOVE IS NO OTHER THAN CHRIST JESUS. He is the only one that is “patient and kind… not jealous or boastful or proud or rude… does not demand its own way… not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. …does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. … never gives up, never loses faith … always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance”. The time to surrender to this love is now. The year has just begun; make every effort to live this love knowing that it’s all about Jesus (Love). Let your actions towards one another be that of love for the glory of God in Christ Jesus (Love). 1 John 4 admonishes us that:

… ⁷ Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. ⁸ But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.⁹ God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ¹⁰ This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins… ¹⁵ All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. ¹⁶ We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. ¹⁷ And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.¹⁸ Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love… (1 John 4: 1-21 NLT).

Experiencing true love comes from knowing Jesus, living with Jesus, living for Jesus. This love then naturally trickles down to all others around us. The world can be a better place when we all recognize that we are made for love (Jesus) with love (Jesus) in love (Jesus) and by love (Jesus). Live love (Jesus) to the fullest!!!

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