The heart of man is suspicious to me. Even to put it that way, “the heart of man” is deemed to be offensive. It’s like those three letters are poison to the human condition. Oops, pardon me, there I go again with the m.a.n.
Talk to any woman…ha ha…it’s like you can’t escape it. Let me start again.
I met this person from Manitoba. Ah! Enough already!
Can we agree this is ridiculous? Listen, there are some harsh realities of the human condition that we need to take a clean, sober look at, and the use of the word “man” is the least of our concern.
As I was saying, the heart of man is suspicious to me. One day you love, the next day you kill. One day you meet at the altar and the next day in the lawyer’s office. One day you are loved like family and the next day you are discarded like an orphan.
What is love? Some will say it is an emotion while others write books about how it is a choice.
If love is an emotion expect it to change like waves as they are designed to do. Emotions are not meant to be constant. Can you say you are happy all of the time and experience no other emotion…sober…? Love as an emotion is not sustainable over the long-term.
If love is a choice, then it is an attitude. Attitudes are developed from thoughts plus emotions and we already concluded that emotions change. What happens to this choice when your thoughts toward a person you love begin to diminish? Your attitude toward them changes; thereby, love changes. Love as a choice cannot be trusted to stay for the long-term.
It’s like we instinctively know that love, real love, never fails. We are right to believe that. We are right to desire it, but if love is not supposed to fail, why does it?
When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he was not gushing over how well they loved each other and those around them. He was admonishing them! Correcting them because they were cultivating a very dangerous attitude.
“If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t have love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all His mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, ‘Jump,’ and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 MSG
It is a harsh reality to face the fact that while we may be in possession of all the world has to offer us, without love, we are nothing.
What does love look like?
“Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a NIV
Quite simply, if you are not patient or kind, you do not have love and are nothing. If you are envious of others, cut others down, selfish, always angry and/or never forget a wrong done against you, you do not have love and are nothing. You can read the rest and apply it in the same fashion.
This is the reality of our condition but IF we remember God, who He is, we WILL become one who loves everyone with the attributes described above. We WILL change our communities because of the power of God’s love to transform and soften the vilest, most stubborn, hardened heart in man.
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:7-8 (emphasis is mine)
What does it mean for you to love? How are you learning to love as God loves and what changes are you seeing in your life and community as a result? We want to hear your story about love.
