Love is...
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. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NLT
God’s Word, and God Himself do much to help us understand “agape” the Greek word for love in 1 Corinthians 13. One of the difficulties in this moment is that we have massive confusion around the English word love. Our ideas and notions crowd around the definition given and make it hard to see the concept of God’s love without a lot of unhelpful cultural baggage. Its like seeing the sunshine through the haze of Canadian wildfire smoke. Its still bright and brings some heat but, there is no sharp definition. Let’s tackle a few of these ideas which might be making it hard to see clearly God’s love for what it is.
First, we need to set aside any idea that agape is about affection toward a person that is lovely. Agape is love that issues from the lover regardless of the worthiness of the person to whom it is expressed. If we can see this one aspect of agape well, it should change us. I am loved by God because He loves me, not because I am (or need to try to be) lovely. That’s freeing to understand. In fact, God loved me and you when we were our unloveliest (while we were yet sinners) and in the most lavish way possible (Christ died for us). And that is amazing to see!
Second, we need to get rid of the notion that God’s love is ‘soft’. Again it isn’t because the Bible is confusing on this issue, God’s way of loving us clearly shows us that He is not permissive toward sin. He leaves no doubt about His dealings with sinners who refuse to repent. His love is a reason for His discipline (see Hebrews 12:5-7). He is not a wink and nod at our wrongdoing kind of Father. In other words, any notion we have of God’s love that does not also square with God’s holiness and justice is a notion unfitting to His love and His way of loving. Again, what a sight to behold: a God who knows our sinfulness and loves us. Look again and marvel: a God who deals with sin and sinners in a way that does not compromise His holiness but shows us holy love.
Third, we need to clear away any sense we have of God’s love having a limit. In human relationships, there is a limit to love. Often, people only love for a season or in very rare cases for a lifetime. Still, there is a boundary to human loving. If circumstances don’t create that boundary than our mortality does. Not so with God. His love is really boundless. It will never end. This is in part why eternity makes sense for the children of God. His infinite love is to be experienced not in a span of days or months or years. Rather, His love is to be experienced for eternity. Again what a sight! Can you see a love that does not have an end? Can you even start to imagine what it means that the love God extends to you in Christ will outlast your time on earth? The earth itself?
Look again and marvel, what wonderous love is this oh my soul!