The truth of love

This final section of the qualities of love will cover the remaining verses of the chapter opening with verse 6. Dependent on the version used it says that love does not rejoice in inequity/ wrong doing, but rejoices in the truth.  Now the word inequity can translate into several things and imply various things to different individuals; but taking it in the content of love and relationships, I would think that it would cover your conduct towards another. The reason why I would see it that way is that occasionally people have the tendency of receiving pleasure in seeing somebody get what was coming to them, an example of that would be deliberately doing something to spite another person as a means of getting attention, making them jealous or whatever reason it may be, which not healthy for any kind of relationship. In some cases in a group of friends, family or work environment where an select group ill-treats others or find enjoyment in ridiculing or breaking down some else and then you seal all of that with: “I have nothing but love for you, you do know that?” type of excuse. This is essentially not love, or at least does not fall under the classification of virtuous and healthy love, which will cultivate moral fruits and structure for someone. True love within companionships in any form do not comprise of people finding pleasure in the discomfort, defeat or humiliation of another; give it any title you want and sugar coat it if you may, nevertheless there is no respectable and healthy love behind that kind of conduct.

When the intention is to correct another and address something in “the spirit of truth”; that will involve you following the biblical guidelines of addressing a fellow believer outlined by Jesus in Matthew 18:15-20 and Galatians 6:1. Scripture states that you are to speak to that individual first before you start involving other people, but at no point whatsoever is your aim to find joy in their shame and most of all it need be done in gentleness and love. This once again goes back to what is motivating you and if God is the one leading you, because if it is the Holy Spirit of God , the correction is meant to bring about correction and spiritual edification. Therefore the way in which you address matters, how you treat people and what you entertain concerning others will make the difference.

The next verse says “Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” This is once again us not addressing abuse in any form, be it from co-worker, spouse, family and friends. I believe that there are some conducts which are vicious and destructive; though we need to demonstrate kindness towards others however if people refuse to change their toxic behaviors, there is no sin in removing yourself from such people and situations, simply love them from a distance. The reason being that scripture has addressed this on several verses concerning  just how contaminating  these qualities can be and prove to be stumbling block for your own spiritual walk ( 2Thessalonians 3:14, 1 Corinthians 15:33, Proverbs 13:20, 1 Corinthians 5:11, Proverbs 14:7, Psalm 26:4-5, Proverbs 22: 24-25, to list a few). Now back to the verse in question, this address a quality of love that could be experienced mostly in a marriage or in some close friendship and family relationships where you can be pushed to your limits, but you need to be able to ask God to assist you in moving past the hurts, the difficulties faced as there will be the challenging times and moments when you have to even ask ‘is this still worth it”? Where you feel like these people in your life just do not appreciate you and you may also feel as though they have changed, you feel estranged from them and loving them feels like a lonely place. It is in these moments when you need to cry unto God the most and ask Him to shower that spiritual love in your heart, especially when you are endeavoring to minister to someone whom God has required you to reach out to and they appear to be simply rejecting you, or your child is simply mastering the art of disrespecting you; you need God’s love to be able to endure that season in your lives. As that is where you will find your well of Hope to drink from and you will thus find that you were able to bear what you would have never been capable of enduring through your own strength. There will be fights, disappointment and many moments where you feel you are the prey and the others are the villains, when in actuality there are two sides to a story and you are more inclined to read the version where you are that the saint. However, if you grew up in a household with siblings, had friends, spent time with relatives, attended church, had kids and have been married, you will know that all these relationships take strain at some point or the other even parent-child relationships have their moments of strain and tension; all relationships take strain , have their occasions of disappointments and impose you to question the relationship and love as a whole. That does not however mean you should go live in an island by your lonesome self, you need to strive to get past these moments, in love. If you choose to nurture the pain rather than the love, you stand to lose out, and the time lost and moments down the drain is something you will never gain back. Each day, you need to decide, will I allow God to lead me in loving others or will I lead myself and loose others.

Then ultimately all these verses are sealed by “Love never fails…” which is a beautiful synopsis of love, when it is experienced in a biblical and healthy way. This is the truth, just as the love of God for us through the sacrifice of Christ was able to defeat death, thus when we ask God to allow that very identical love to be in us, we too will not fail at loving those around us. Then ultimately as verse 8 says that all spiritual gifts may fail to be effective, but when the love of God in us through Christ pushes us, we would do more than the minim. You could say that the spiritual gift is a car, you can go only so far and do so much with the car on its own, but when the fuel of God is added, you will be able to do so much more with that car and go further.

Then I will end of with verse 13 which cements that chapter by stating that love is the greatest out of all these gifts. So remember, love through Jesus Christ.