Love

Well, I've been pondering it over the last couple of days especially because of all the weddings and new and budding relationships. Christian weddings are so lovely because it's real. The couple mean their vows and know exactly what they're going into. They also have God in the centre of it and it is their love for God that keeps them together. But I haven't just been thinking about romantic love, but love in a lot of senses. Love in its wider sense has been on and off my mind for the last few years at uni, but especially since going to the Thursday night Bible study a couple of weeks ago when Matt was talking about 1 Peter 4:7-11. The verse that stuck in my mind was verse 8, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins." I know from all the married ladies I know that deeply as they love their husbands, sometimes it's hard to put this command into practice, but we're to love everyone! Not just our spouses, friends or families. Goodness!

Anyway... It is a difficult and challenging subject, so I looked at what God says, starting of course with 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

Romans 13:8-10: "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'Do not commit adultery', 'Do not murder', 'Do not steal', 'Do not covet', and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbour as yourself'. Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law."

1 John 4:16-21: "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we may have confidence on the day of judgement, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God', yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."

John 13:35, 36: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

John 14:15; 21: "If you love me, you will obey what I command.... Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

And, in relation to romantic love, this challenges me most as I seek to trust God about my future: Song of Songs 2:7, "Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires."

Of course, the Bible says TONS more about love, but I haven't looked at all of it and certainly, each passage needs a lot of pondering by itself and would be too much for a blog entry. Goodness! It is all too much! What a gift, but how I abuse it. As the passage in Romans states, it's loving genuinely that enables us to fulfil the law. My conclusion is I should pray and ask God to help me love people because I can't even love those close me the way I'm supposed to. Until then, I have a lot more pondering to do....