I've been stuck in that "love" passage of 1 Corinthians 13 for a few days, and realizing what a shame is that this scripture is so often relegated to being read only at wedding ceremonies.

I have a beautiful friend who very often says, "We wage war with love, because love never fails." This is a great saying, unless we never really read this incredibly clear definition of what love is. Our culture tells us many different things about how to love and what love may be defined as being. But I rather think it is all laid out right here.

LOVE IS...

... patient
... kind

LOVE ALWAYS...

... rejoices in the truth
... protects
... trusts
... hopes
... perseveres

LOVE IS NOT...

... envious
... boastful
... proud
... rude
... self-seeking
... easily angered

LOVE DOES NOT...

... keep a record of wrongs
... delight in evil
... ever fail


For myself, this scripture has been on my brain in the last few days, and it causes me to wonder whether I love the people in my life this way. I fully realize that I have certain people in my life that are difficult to love for whatever reason. I think we probably all do, and it's important to make sure that we are doing our best to still fulfill this kind of love towards those people. But I am thinking more tonight of those friends to whom I regularly say, "I love you." To me, those words are not flippant, nor are they simply a salutation or a way to say goodbye. I earnestly desire those words to be true whenever I speak them. But as my friend also very often says, "Talk's cheap." If I am going to use the words, "I love you,", then it's time once again to make sure I understand what I mean when I say it, and ensure that I am living up God's standards for what love truly is.

There are many things that make up who I am - talents, skills, and personality. But I pray that when I am no longer near the friends that I have now, they will remember me not as someone who could sing or play some instruments, but as someone who loved the Lord and who loved people. Someone who loved scripturally and who loved with abandon.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 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...." (1 Corinthians 13:1-8a)