Choose Love

Why are we to choose love over all else? Because love only comes from God, hate comes from Satan. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:36-39. But I’m not talking about the kind of love you see portrayed in movies. That kind of love is very finicky and can be here today and gone tomorrow. That kind of love is all about how we feel inside, or how someone else makes us feel. God’s love however is totally different. His love doesn’t change based on our behavior. He doesn’t “fall out of love” with us. Jesus tells us that true love may require you to lay your life down for someone. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15: 12-13. Is that the kind of love you have for your spouse? What about your kids, your parents, etc? Do we even understand what unconditional love is? How do we keep loving someone, when they are making it hard to love them? God tells us that true love isn’t a feeling or something that happens to us, it’s a choice.

Genuine love is defined by our actions and our actions should show that we want what’s best for that person, not what makes them, or ourselves comfortable. We should also use love to help build up one another to grow into our fullest God-given potential. This kind of love flies in the faith of what our culture has taught us about love. It’s not easy to help build each other up. In fact, it may cause many arguments and tension in a relationship. Genuine love is followed up with loving actions. We must be careful to not only show truth, discipline, and correction with a healthy balance of love. Paul warns us of what a world without love looks like. 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. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. True love is demonstrated by holding our spouse accountable for their sins, setting boundaries, gently correcting, and ultimately forgiving. This kind of love will keep a marriage going for decades. Don’t trust your sensual desires of love, those are fleeting and have nothing to do with the type of love God wants us to have for our spouse. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.1 Corinthians 13:13