Love is…
“Love is a condition so powerful. It may be that which holds the stars and the firmament. It may be that which pushes and urges the blood in the veins. Courage. You have to have courage to love somebody because you risk everything. Everything.” – Maya Angelou
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVqr6MDdOHc[/embedyt]
I think Maya Angelou is speaking of this same kind of love that we’re trying to get our arms around. It’s a different kind of love.
[Tweet “”You have to have courage to love somebody because you risk everything. Everything.” – Maya Angelou”]I’ve said before that Love + Power makes an eternal difference. And I truly believe that. We know what power looks like. We see power on display all around us.
But what does love look like? I think that’s the question that we continually struggle to answer.
What does love look like?
When Paul wrote to the church in the city of Corinth, he says, let me tell you what love looks like. I can tell you because I have seen it in action. I have experienced it first hand from Jesus. You’re spending all your energy around who has what power, but the secret is you all have access to the greatest power.
The power of love.
And this is what love looks like.
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.
In these 4 verses, Paul uses 15 verbs to talk about love.
For Paul, the love of Jesus is not an abstract quality, attitude, or feeling. This love is a distinctive action. All 15 verbs are action words. Not qualities or characteristics.
I don’t think Paul had any trouble writing this because this is what he had experienced first hand from Jesus on the road to Damascus! (Acts 9) And this is what he had experienced from being in a daily relationship with Jesus.
So Paul says, this is the way of love. It’s love in motion. Love with action behind it.
And the truth is we know this is how love works. If I were to say to my wife, I love you, but never demonstrate that love in any tangible way, she would be right to wonder if I really love her.
Love has to be more than a feeling. Love has to be more than words. Love is demonstrated. Love is active. Love is lived out.
[Tweet “Love is demonstrated. Love is active. Love is lived out.”]This is how we love each other…
So Paul says if you say you love the church, if you say you love each other, this is what that love looks like.
You can’t love the church and not be patient with the church.
You can’t love the church and not be kind to those who are in the church.
You can’t love the church and be jealous of others within the church.
You can’t love the church and be boastful about how good you are within the church.
You can’t love the church and be filled with pride within the church.
You can’t love the church and be rude to others within the church.
You can’t love the church and demand that you get your way within the church.
You can’t love the church and come every week and be irritable every minute you’re here within the church.
You can’t love the church and keep a record of every time you think you’ve been wronged by the church.
You can’t love the church and rejoice at some injustice within the church.
You can’t love the church and not rejoice when the truth is shared within the church.
You can’t love the church and give up on the church.
You can’t love the church and not have faith in the church.
You can’t love the church and not be hopeful for the church.
You can’t love the church and not endure with the church through every circumstance.
Why?
Because this is love. This is what love DOES. This is the ACTIVITY of love.
The key to the unity of the church then and now is LOVE. Love in Action. Love participating in what benefits the church.
[Tweet “The key to the unity of the church then and now is LOVE. Love in Action.”]It’s this love that Paul experienced from Jesus on the road to Damascus when he was on his way to persecute the followers of Jesus that turned Paul into a follower of Jesus!
That fact is a simple but powerful reminder that this is also true: It’s hard to share a love that you’ve yet to experience.
What about you?
So I want to ask that question. Have you? Have you experienced this love first hand from Jesus?
Sometimes we think because of what we’ve done that we’re beyond the reach of the love of Jesus.
But Paul wasn’t beyond the love of Jesus even though he participated in the killing and persecution of Christians.
The woman who was caught in adultery wasn’t beyond the love of Jesus. When they brought her before Jesus, what does he do? He loves her! Forgives her.
The tax collector wasn’t beyond the love of Jesus. Jesus loves him and even makes one of them his disciple and puts him in his inner circle!
The demon possessed man wasn’t beyond the love of Jesus. The outcast wasn’t beyond the love of Jesus. The Samaritan woman wasn’t beyond the love of Jesus.
He loves them ALL!
Their politics don’t matter. Their beliefs don’t matter. Their status in life doesn’t matter. Their background doesn’t matter. What they have done or haven’t done doesn’t matter.
Jesus loves them all. Just ask the criminal on the cross!
In fact, no one is beyond the love of Jesus.
The love of Jesus is big enough, strong enough, able enough to save anyone who would come to Him.
The answer for every person that encounters Jesus is love.
Love is His superpower. Love is His secret weapon. Love changed absolutely everyone that encountered Jesus.
And…
Love is our superpower!
[Tweet “Love is our superpower!”]Love still changes lives. Love still breaks down barriers. Love still heals wounds. Love still forgives wrongs. It’s Love. It’s always been, love.
It takes courage to love.
But it takes courage to love.
It takes courage to be patient and kind.
It takes courage to not be jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
It takes courage to not demand your own way. To not be irritable.
It takes courage to keep no record of being wronged.
It takes courage to not rejoice about injustice.
And it takes courage to rejoice whenever the truth wins out.
It takes courage to never give up, to never lose faith, to always be hopeful, and to endure through every circumstance.
It takes courage to love.
[Tweet “It takes courage to love.”]That’s why Jesus is the bravest human being who ever lived. It took courage to face the cross, to risk everything, even His own life, for you and me.
Because to love, to really love, means you’re willing to risk everything.
Don’t ever forget the cross. Look at it every day if you have too.
Because the way of love as demonstrated on the cross is our superpower. It’s the way of love that changes lives.
[Tweet “The way of love as demonstrated on the cross is our superpower. It’s the way of love that changes lives.”]
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