Let Love Guide Us in the New Year: Love Perseveres, Trusts, Hopes, and Endures
Honeysuckle symbolizes the bonds of love.
In his last two verses of his description of the nature of agape, or Christ love, in his first letter to the Corinthians the apostle Paul lists several positive qualities or characteristics. The first of these qualities or characteristics is that love never gives up on people. It perseveres. It continues making an effort in a determined way, even when it is difficult or takes a long time. It does not quit. It does not stop in the face of difficulties. It endures whatever the circumstances are. It will experience and bear the difficulties, the unpleasantness, and the pain. It does not look for an excuse to not love someone and having found an excuse stops loving them.
This quality or characteristic sets agape, or Christian love, apart from the other types of love. It does not abandon someone because they are unresponsive. They do not react in a quick or positive way to the love shown them. In his teaching Jesus encouraged his disciples to be generous in their giving and to not expect anything in return for their generosity. Agape, or Christian love, is the same way. It is not offered in the hopes that it will be reciprocated. It is given freely without any strings attached. Christians, when they are genuinely love others as Jesus taught, are imitating God in their love. They are showing that they are children of God.
The love that we show to others or to our fellow Christians may be spurned by them. They may refuse to accept it for a variety of reasons. For example, they may confuse it with carnal love, love that is related to the physical feelings or wants of the body. This does not mean that we stop loving them. They may come in time to recognize it for what it is. They may not. We have no control over how they chose to respond. As we saw in an earlier article, agape, or Christian love, is not about benefiting from our expression of that love. It does not try to manipulate or control the person at whom it is directed. If it is refused or rejected, we do not go looking for someone else to love. We persevere. We do not move on to someone who is easier to love and who is responsive to our love.
A second positive quality or characteristic that Paul lists is that agape, or Christian love, never loses faith. It never stops trusting. There is no end to its trust. It maintains its great trust and confidence in God, its strong belief in God. It believes what Jesus taught and believes that in loving others unreservedly, completely, without any doubts or feelings of being uncertain, whether neighbors, enemies, or brothers and sisters in Christ, it is doing the right thing. It is doing the will of God. It believes that God puts people in the life of a disciple of Jesus to be loved. Loving them is one of the purposes that God gives the Christian the will and power to achieve.
When we trust someone, we believe that they are good and honest and will not harm us. When we trust God, we believe same thing. We believe that God is good. We believe that he tells the truth, is trustworthy, and is not likely to lie to us. We also believe that God will not harm us. He is kind and helpful. Based on our trust in him, we do what Jesus taught, believing that God has in mind our best interests and the best interests of those whom we love.
A third positive quality or characteristic that Paul is that agape, or Christian love, is always hopeful. It never loses hope. Its hope never fades.
When we hope, we want something to happen or to be true, and we usually have a good reason to think that it might. We have a confident feeling about what will happen in the future. We believe that something good will happen in the future. We feel that something which we desire can be had or will happen.
A fourth positive quality or characteristic that Paul list is that agape, or Christian love, will endure through every circumstance. It never fails, It will never end. It is eternal. It will outlast everything else.
When we compare these qualities and characteristics of agape, or Christian love, with God’s love, we cannot miss the similarity between this type of love and God’s love. God is unwavering in his love for us. Agape, or Christian love, embodies God’s faithfulness. Like God’s love, agape, or Christian love, is true. It is sincere and loyal and continues to be so in difficult situations.
Sexual and romantic love fade. Passions cool. Hormones subside. A partner or spouse may go in search of someone new, someone more exciting. But agape, or Christian love, is, I believe, infused with God’s love and it does not disappear. It not only lasts a lifetime but also for all eternity.