Real Love - Pt. 1

 

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. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. (1 Corinthians 13:4-10 ESV).

 

For the next few days I am going to explore a very familiar Bible reading. The Apostle Paul wrote it; and, part of it is in our reading today. This well-recognized and much-loved passage from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is probably among the most often misunderstood and misused Christian Scriptures. Found in greeting cards or read at weddings, this passage has become associated with a noble and sincere love between a man and a woman. This description of the way of love is intended to capture a couple’s heart and thus lead them toward lifelong commitment. However, it is unlikely that the apostle was thing about the love between partners in marriage. The key to understanding the meaning is in the use of the Greek word agape, which is the word Paul uses for “love” in this passage.

 

I have heard an old wives’ tale many times: “If you call a dog a bad name, he’ll live up to it.” Perhaps the converse is true as well, that if you call a dog a good name, he’ll live up to that too. I have heard it in reference to people more than pets. Many years ago a classroom experiment was conducted by a sociology teacher in which all the brown-eyed students in class were asked to sit in the front and all the blue-eyed students were asked to sit in the back. The teacher told the brown-eyed ones, “Brown-eyed children are more intelligent than blue-eyed.” The teacher kept this up for a week and found that the brown-eyed students did better in their homework. They got better grades. They were better behaved in class. The blue-eyed kids began to decline. The following week the teacher came to class and said, “I’ve made a terrible mistake. The research shows it was the blue-eyed kids that are better.” She moved them to the front of the class, telling them they were more intelligent, and soon their scores soared.

 

Thankfully such experiments are no longer allowed. But they remind us of the first truth in our reading. Real love is being willing to trust, to give people the benefit of the doubt. This is the kind of love that brings us to a willingness to sacrifice everything for the recipient of our love. It is the kind of love God has for us.