"I Know What Love Is"

 

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

—1 Corinthians 13:13

Shriners Hospitals for Children—a network of 22 non-profit medical facilities across North America that provides care and services, in a family-centered environment, for children who have orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate deformities, regardless of the patients’ ability to pay—has flooded the cable television channels with a promotional video that asks the question: “What is love?” In case you haven’t seen this video, you can find it here:

In contrast, many reading this blog post will likely remember one of the more pivotal lines in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump: “Jenny, I may not be a smart man, but I know what love is.” And, of course, Forrest goes on to prove this fact in a deeply moving and self-sacrificing way, as Jenny eventually succumbs to cancer.

On this Valentine’s Day, there is no more fitting expression of genuine love—a love that surpasses all other possible love—than the words written by the Apostle Paul and recorded in 1 Corinthians 13:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

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. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

This love, this God-breathed love—for Paul uses the New Testament Greek word “agape” throughout this chapter—has a grippingly surpassing quality that sends a lightning bolt through the hearts of believers—a lightning bolt that makes Cupid’s arrow wither away like a shriveled leaf in the fall of the year. No romantic love, no deep friendship, no sexual attraction can even come close to the depth, width, breadth, and height of this God-breathed love.

That God lovingly places this love inside the hearts and minds of those He has called to Himself is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. And yet, it is truly one of His greatest gifts, apart from the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, in our behalf.

This day—this special day—let’s grab onto this God-breathed love and allow it to become the true and full expression of our gift of love to our beloved. In so doing, we fulfill the law of Christ and meet the desperate needs of a troubled world.

 

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