for love.
It's because of Christ love, that we have His grace.
His love.
LOVE
I sit here staring into my keyboard thinking about this word...Love. It's many text book definitions that can go from extreme passion to a mere... like. There aren't enough keys in front of me to begin to label the definitions of love. Millions of trees cut down and shredded up to make paper for all those love notes passed around in 6th grade. Love. What any parent would go through to keep their child in peace from pain. What mountains are dominated and deserts crossed under foot of man. Fortunes given away and fortunes amassed in its name. Love. Screaming into the sky proclaiming it unto all the earth when we find it. Love. Wars waged and damsels in distress saved.
Love, true love, is akin to 2 person on a boat out in the sea. In the sun, rain, sleet , fog, wind, thunder and lightning, hurricanes, depressions... they would stay in that boat together no matter what comes against them.
You know how it was when you first fell in love as a teenager. Nothing else mattered to you except that other person and not even the gates of hell could keep you from them.
We have all been there at least once and if you haven't been there just yet let me tell you...it's the only time everything seems to be going right in your life.
In the Bible Paul defines love as this:
1 Corinthians 13 (God's Word Translation)
Love
I may speak in the languages of humans and of angels. But if I don’t have love, I am a loud gong or a clashing cymbal. I may have the gift to speak what God has revealed, and I may understand all mysteries and have all knowledge. I may even have enough faith to move mountains. But if I don’t have love, I am nothing. I may even give away all that I have and give up my body to be burned. But if I don’t have love, none of these things will help me.
Love is patient. Love is kind. Love isn’t jealous. It doesn’t sing its own praises. It isn’t arrogant. It isn’t rude. It doesn’t think about itself. It isn’t irritable. It doesn’t keep track of wrongs. It isn’t happy when injustice is done, but it is happy with the truth. Love never stops being patient, never stops believing, never stops hoping, never gives up.
Love never comes to an end. There is the gift of speaking what God has revealed, but it will no longer be used. There is the gift of speaking in other languages, but it will stop by itself. There is the gift of knowledge, but it will no longer be used. Our knowledge is incomplete and our ability to speak what God has revealed is incomplete. But when what is complete comes, then what is incomplete will no longer be used. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I no longer used childish ways. Now we see a blurred image in a mirror. Then we will see very clearly. Now my knowledge is incomplete. Then I will have complete knowledge as God has complete knowledge of me.
So these three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the best one of these is love.
When you find that bond with Christ, and you truly love Him with that passion, you will know all things are in fact going right and no matter the storm you will have the strength to make it through. If we love each other as He loves us, lust will die and half the worlds problems will fall away.