Love Never Fails

"It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (1 Corinthians 13:8-9)

Let's start with protection. Parents protect their small children from harm all the time. They make sure they have sufficient and proper nourishment so that they don't die of starvation and so that they grow strong and healthy. They watch to make sure their children don't get into dangerous situations that can harm them or even kill them. Even teaching them good work ethics and responsibilities is a form of protection that safeguards that they will be able to survive on their own when they become adults. All of that is a good thing. Parents who protect their children in these ways, show that they love their children with a proper love.

But the love of a parent can become a dangerous thing when it protects children from the consequences of bad behavior or bad choices. It is the difficult parts of life that teach us the most. We learn very little when all is well. This is true in relationships, economics, and especially in terms of faith. When parents circumvent the consequences of their children's inappropriate or unhealthy behavior, they think they do it because they "love" their children. But anything that does not benefit another individual is not love. Preventing young adults from developing in areas of moral and legal responsibility, and of learning how to trust in God rather than become dependent on others or the government for sustenance, is NOT beneficial. Children learn the most about God from parents who don't avoid difficult circumstances themselves; who don't shy away from hardships, but turn completely to God in the midst of those hardships. How else can they see first hand what it means to trust God as they see God protecting and caring for their parents who have put their trust in God alone. Unfortunately, we live in a world today where if there is any discomfort at all, we want to move from that place and find a different place that is more comfortable; whether it is to a new job, a new neighborhood, a new marriage or even a new church. Many of us have not yet received the revelation of Paul's statement that says:

"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Philippians 4:11)

When parents get that revelation, as Paul had, the discipleship they are able to pass on to their children through their own ability to "be content" no matter how tough things get, is invaluable to their children.

So proper Godly love must be beneficial, and it is in its beneficence that is truly protective.

God allowed the Assyrians to invade Israel in the year 728 B.C. There was much devastation from that attack. But if Israel had heeded God, and learned from the consequences of their own bad choices (idolatry, turning from God, etc.) they would not have suffered the even greater devastation that was to come next which was: complete destruction of the temple and Jerusalem (up to that point the greatest devastation they had ever experienced) and slavery for 70 years for every man, woman and child. Instead, they continued doing their own thing; they did not heed God who, because He loved them, wanted to spare them the complete devastation that would come if they continued in their sin. In their case, it took a loss of everything and 70 years of captivity for Israel to finally return to God.

Sometimes that has to happen with rebellious children as well who will not heed their parents. But without facing that first devastation, they will face even worse to come…things that no parent would ever want to witness their children experiencing. How much worse if the parent realizes too late that it was their "love" that put that child in that place, "love" that was not beneficial, "love" that did not protect from the even worse evil to come.

Then there is trust. Trust does not have a suspicious mind. Trust is what a child has in a parent. Trust believes, and will stretch that belief as far as is possible, until circumstances proves the object of our trust is not trustworthy. Experience might have shown us that most folks cannot be trusted; but love does not color ALL to be untrustworthy because of some previously bad experiences. Love still continues to trust, until proven otherwise. This love does not throw all caution to the wind, it does not ignore wisdom. But void of any definitive proofs to the contrary, it will choose to trust.

We are more easily able to trust others, when our trust is first and foremost in God. We trust in God that the ones we are praying for will receive salvation. We trust that God is able to transform the lives of those who have been born again, even when they are taking a wrong turn in the road. We trust that God is able to "keep" those whom we entrust to Him (especially rebellious children or unsaved family members). We trust that, just as we once were so oppressed by sin but were delivered by Jesus Christ, so also will our loved ones one day be delivered from sin's oppression. We love them, even while they are unlovable; and we love them in ways that will protect and not harm. And sometimes, we love them by trusting them, even if it goes bad for us. We consider the loss to ourselves as nothing in comparison to the "hope" that one day the trust we put in them will be realized. We never speak distrust, we speak that which is good and honorable.

Our hope for them all is in God. We do not ever, in proper love, determine that they are hopeless. We do not speak hopelessness to them. When we do that we are telling God that we do not believe He can bring them to the place He once brought us who also appeared to be "hopeless." We do not allow the enemy to place hatred in our hearts in any form, other than hatred of the sin itself; never hatred or dislike of the sinner. We hope without failing for them. We await the change that we know will come because we know in WHOM our hope really lies.

And in doing so, in always protecting, always trusting, always hoping, we persevere in love. Our loved ones and all of those on our prayer lists know how much we love them because our love never fails to pray for them, our love always perseveres, it never ceases, it never forgets them. Love perseveres or endures. It continues even when it has been ill-used, it will not seek revenge. And it does so because it hopes! It desires the BEST for the one for whom it hopes. It never wants to see them come to ruin, no matter how they have mis-used us. It continues to love and it perseveres in this love. Certainly, no one has ever been more ill-used than the Lord has been by us…the ones He created….even at times those He gave His life for. And yet the Word is filled with page after page of His desire that we would "repent and return" to Him.

That is great love. That is God's love. As Matthew Henry put it: "[Love] is a permanent and perpetual grace, lasting as eternity…"

That is love that never fails. And with God in us, that is the love we are to spread to others.

"A new commandment give I unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another." (John 13:34-35)