Daily Lectionary: Job 2:1-3:10; John 1:19-34
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
What is love? Does it make your heart beat faster every time he or she walks into the room? If you were to believe what you see on TV and the movies, and hear in music, love has to do with what you see with the eyes and feel with your heart in regard to one special member of the opposite sex.
When I was in college, there was a little one-frame cartoon called, “Love is…” It would have a picture and then a phrase saying what love is. “…a rose for no reason.” “…a foot rub.” “…a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with bananas.”
Guess what? That isn’t what the kind of love that Paul is describing. The thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians is often called the love chapter because it describes what love is and what love isn’t. 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. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
According to that definition, you may think that you do not have love in your life. Look at those words again. As you ponder them, think not of how you love others, nor even of how others love you. This is how we should love, yes. We all fall short as our love is tainted by sin.
This is how you are loved, though, for this is the love of God for you in Christ Jesus – a perfect love, a self-sacrificing and selfless love. This love of God now dwells in your heart, for you received it in your baptism. You have been built up in love as Christ’s love is poured into you through Word and Sacrament. Live in that love.
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, because of Your tender love toward us sinners You have given us Your Son that, believing in Him, we might have everlasting life. Continue to grant us Your Holy Spirit that we may remain steadfast in this faith to the end and finally come to life everlasting; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Steadfast Faith – pg. 311, LSB)