Love, Pass it Around

For the Month of February, let us talk about this crazy thing called love. Back in the first century, the first missionary Paul wrote this:

"Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." 1 Corinthians 13:7

and

"Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13

God gives us many gifts, as Paul wrote about in his first letter to the Corinthians. In chapter 13, he says three of these last forever -- faith, hope and the greatest among the three, love.

Love which we now in turn use to be able to love God back and to love others, yes particularly the unlovable or those you cannot really bring to love, even if you try.

Indeed the apostle John wrote in his first letter that God loved us first, and that we in turn love because we were loved first.

So when we hear people say, 'God is love', or that 'all we need is love' or 'love makes the world go round' or 'it must have been love', these are all accurate.

People have been singing and making songs about this and they are right -- real love that is. The kind that never gives up, that cares more for others than for self, that doesn’t want what it doesn’t have, that doesn’t strut, that doesn’t have a swelled head, that doesn’t force itself on others, that isn’t always “me first,” that doesn’t fly off the handle, that doesn’t keep score or keep track of wrongs of others, that doesn’t revel when others grovel, that takes pleasure in the flowering of the truth, puts up with anything or never stops being patient, never stops believing, never stops hoping, that always looks for the best, never looks back, and keeps going to the end.

Yes, that kind, the energizer bunny kind of love.

And you cannot possess or really pass it on, unless you received it first. Otherwise, all we can really do is sing or make songs about it.