Unfailing Love

The word "love" in our culture is used very loosely. We talk of loving our wife, our dog, our truck, our shoes, a movie - all with the same string of consonants and vowels. But the fact is, we don't really love all the things we say we do - we may not even love our friends or family.  It is quite possible any given person doesn't really love his/her spouse, but I am more than certain we don't love even our very best pair of shoes. 

The reason for my certainty that we don't love all the things we claim to and may not even love the people we claim to is the frequency in which we detach and reattach it's object. We love this truck until we buy that one.  We love this pair of shoes until a new line comes out. We love this spouse until we don't. 

The trouble with love in the cases above is that love isn't something that can be assigned to inanimate objects to begin with. Love is a manifestation of personhood - it exists only between those capable of expressing it. Love also is not a feeling that comes and goes with the tide of emotions, it is a choice that is made and expressed in word and deed that continues despite the rise and fall of emotions. 

"Love never fails" (1 Cor 13:8): "It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (1 Cor 13:7).  The ones you love may disappoint you, irritate you or even turn their backs on you. But when you love someone, you keep on loving them even when you don't like them or accept what they say and do. 

True love, that which comes from God, who is Love, does not give in or give up - it keeps on keeping on just as God continues to love us despite the level of sin and rebellion we have risen to. His love continues and His offer of grace keeps going out - regardless.

The object of love may fail but love never does. Jus' Sayn.