The Command to Love (Part 2)

1 Corinthians 14:1 - Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire [this] love [make it your aim, your great quest]
  
This scripture highlights the importance of love; it commands us to pursue love, make love our aim, and our quest. This scripture also helps us to see that love is not a feeling; it is something that needs to be done consciously, and on purpose - Love is not a reaction, it is an action. So how do we make love our aim? We walk, talk and live consistently in love; all our actions are guided by the nature of love. When in doubt if an action is an act of love, the answer is to ask if the action passes the checklist of love: Is what I am about to do patient? Is it based on pride or humility? Is it kind or unkind? Is it rude or is it polite? Is it envious? Is it boastful? Is it self-seeking? … You get the picture from 1 Corinthians 13 on what love is; in every situation, we need to go with the action of love.

Galatians 5:6 - For [if we are] in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love.
  
As we can see from the scripture, even faith works by love; love activates, energizes, is expressed, and works through love. So love is inexcusable for a vibrant and living relationship with our father, God. Now, let’s take a closer look at the nature of love. 

1 Peter 4:8 - Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
  
Love covers a multitude of sin! It is rather unfortunate how often believers are so quick to talk about each other’s faults or sins. Some pastors actually turn it into a sermon and by the end of the sermon everyone knows exactly whom it is that was being preached about. No! This is not scriptural and a direct disobedience to the command of love. Some do this under pretense of wanting the other person to pray for the person; the truth is that the Holy Spirit knows how to raise intercessors for a person that needs it – he does not need the “prayer requestor ministry” to help him do that. We should not find ourselves picking up the phone to discuss our brothers or sisters faults, we need to spend that time praying for them if we get to know about it, or talk to them directly if we are in the position to do so. Love covers, not expose the faults of our brothers and sisters. It is actually very sad to see when a believer discusses the faults or sins of a believer with an unbeliever. We are one body, so every time we do that, we are only shaming our own body (1 Corinthians 12:12-30).

The love of God covers! This also extends to spouses that spill out everything going on in their marriages to their friends, family, co-workers, and even strangers; this is unfaithful to the spouse, and obviously not an act of love towards them. At the end of the day, this discussions only end up bringing more problems to the marriage than help. In some ways, this act is selfish because it makes the unfaithful spouse feel better; feel better at what expense? At the expense of making the spouse look bad and destroying their reputation – as everyone knows, in the absence of the other spouse, the talking spouse will usually eliminate what they are doing wrong and exaggerate the faults of the other spouse.  Love is not selfish and does no harm (Romans 13:10), so this act, on multiple levels, is against the command of love. I am not advocating not having counsel in marriage; there are however proper channels and people in places of authority in our lives that can help with such things. Some have found themselves doing exactly what the bible tells us not to do: casting pearls before pigs (Matthew 7:6); as the scripture says, it has led to destruction of lives, homes, friendship, and above all, a direct disobedience to the command of love, which is sin.

Romans 12:10 - Love one another with brotherly affection [as members of one family], giving precedence and showing honor to one another. 

Love prefers others above itself; Jesus died for us even though he never sinned. He put our needs before himself; obviously, what he did for us was not glamorous in execution, for he was naked, beaten, spat on, shamed, and the list goes on about what he did for us. However, this is what love does; love puts the needs of the other person first. Giving precedence to one another is putting others first, honoring them, and esteeming them as if they were better than us. Lets take an example we see everyday; there is only one seat left and two people walk into the room, usually the faster gets the chair. Love would give up the chair even if it got there first. Another example from everyday life is when people are having a conversation; love esteems and honors the other person enough to listen to what they have to say about the topic being discussed. It is however very prevalent for people to talk over each other, and not even listen to what the other has to say about the topic being discussed; this is not giving precedence or honor to one another.

In marriage, when both spouses are esteeming, honoring, and giving precedence to one another, it is so beautiful to watch how peaceful and full of love (God) the home is. No one knows everything, so even though the man is the head of the home, the wife’s input is vital in coming to a conclusion. In many cases, if men could really listen to what their wives are saying about a topic, they would see that the Lord was speaking through their wife about that situation. Love gives precedence; it honors, and esteems the other person.

In the next post, other characteristics of this love will be discussed.