Love

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is 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 in the truth. Love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."

        In the English Standard Version the last word in this sentence was translated "ends" rather than "fails."  The word ἐκπίπτω, ekpiptō, ek-pip'-to means to drop away; specifically be driven out of one's course; figuratively to lose, become inefficient: - fail, fall (away, off), take none effect.

Love never "ends" in the sense that it continues to work; but when I think of Love never failing, I think of something much more powerful.  When all else fails, love will never fail.  The key however is found in the essence of love---it is patient, kind, doesn't boast, isn't arrogant or rude, doesn't insist on its own way….well you can reread the list above….when I read this I find myself so lacking.  I can love for a time, but if things don't change in the response and behavior of those whom I love, I begin to demonstrate how much I really love myself. Oh how I long to love purely without insisting on my own way.

        I am reminded what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1Co 15:10, "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was in me."

        In 2Co 2:4 he wrote: "For out of much affliction  and anguish of heart  I wrote  unto you  with  many  tears;  not  that ye should be grieved, but  that  ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you."

        And lastly in one of my favorite verses of Scripture Paul writes:  "And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved." 2Co 12:15 

        Now that is true love!  Nothing more needs to be said…love never fails…now it is up to us to labor more abundantly than they all…yet knowing that we must be totally dependant upon God's grace for any real change and genuine growth.  I don't know if you know the tune or not, so you will have to imagine me signing this…this is an old song I learned over twenty years ago…if you can find the music, it is a really fun song with many parts: "Love, the, Lord your God, with all your heart, and, all your soul, and all your mind, and, love all mankind, as you would love yourself—love!, the Lord your God…with all your heart, with all your soul, and mind, and all mankind…we've got Christian love….and for the life of me I can't remember the rest of it!  Good night and God bless…

l