As an exercise in understanding what love is, our son was required to write the passage of 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 multiple times last week.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind;
love does not envy or boast;
it is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
During this exercise, he states “Love doesn’t seem all that great. It is full of suffering!”
This stopped me midstride and captured my attention.
I’ve been pondering it since.
He is correct, in that to love is to suffer in some way, shape or form. Obviously, suffering can be relative to one’s perspective, but love does require sacrifice, and often suffering.
The point is not to live a life of suffering (…though I give my body to be burned and have not love, it counts as naught) but the point is: Love is the path to LIFE. It is the only way. Love is the greatest, because Love redeems, it overcomes, it heals, it gives life.
Love is incredible! God is Love. This love is powerful, life-changing, and hope-giving.
Thousands, no, millions of godly people who have gone before us, have left beautiful examples of what a life of love looks like. Think of some people you know who have lived in love, and then ponder the suffering they experienced through that love.
Jesus is obviously one of my favorite examples of this; He lived a life of lavish love. His life is also marked by deep suffering.
Yet, this same love/suffering oxymoron catapulted him to a seat of honor in the heavenlies. Philippians 2:4-11
Jesus states in Revelation:
To him who overcomes… I will give him a crown of life.
I will make a pillar in the temple of My God.
He will receive the Name of God on his person.
I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne.
He will be clothed in white.
He will rule over nations.
He will eat of the Tree of Life.
He will receive a white stone on which his new name is written.
I will acknowledge him before My Father and the angels.
Yes, in the words of my 15 yr old, “Love kind of sucks.” But this is where perspective is key. To love lavishly is to also suffer. To love lavishly is to gain eternal reward.
Like Jesus, let us keep a big-picture perspective and understand that suffering is only a part of this fallen world. Eternity with God, who is Love, is reward unending.