True Love

Ideas about love can be so messed up.  It seems to be viewed with restrictions and rules.  Love is used as an excuse for envy, lying, cheating…wars.

Christianity is supposed to be all about love.  At church we’d sing, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.  Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”   I sung this knowing I had anger and hate issues.  It confused me to believe I was a Christian on one hand but, if love was the measure of a Christian, was I deceiving myself? 

I heard many sermons on 1 Corinthians 13, "the love chapter", which intensified my confusion.  1 Corinthians 13:4-8a in the Amplified Bible reads:

4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].

With these as the rules of love, I was a failure.

However…

Thank God these are not rules!!!

These are ways to grow and heal and be free in God as I allow Him to change me from glory to glory!  They are not rules but destinations!  Love is not restrictions but freedom!

My anger was due to abuse.  1 Corinthians 13:5 reads that love takes no account of the evil done to it.  I didn't see how that was possible.  However, as I grow in love, I embrace love’s forgiveness.  My heart is healing, freeing me from anger and hate.  Love’s process can be gentle but is also fierce to overcome roadblocks.  I may not have arrived yet, but I’m much farther along the path than I was (just ask my family), and I will not quit.

As I surrender myself, with all of my faults, to God, He is molding and shaping me in His perfect love.

I love this life!

6/7/12 - For further understanding, read my blog post, Beloved, Let Us Love at  http://shiyrahthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/05/1-john-47-8-nkjv-beloved-let-us-love.html

Copyright 2012 by Leah Lambert Smith