I'm sorry. I had to. It is one of my very favorite parts of one of my very favorite movies, and only fitting for a month like February. And if you aren't sure what movie I'm referring to...inconceivable. I'm not sure we can be friends anymore. It is, of course, The Princess Bride. I can't think of the words "true love" without thinking of Wesley and Princess Buttercup. I could write this whole post on movie quotes, but since that isn't the plan, I will restrain myself.
Just one clip:
On my facebook page a while back, I asked everyone to explain love. Guess what, nobody commented. Not one. I will chalk it up to love being difficult to describe and not that nobody loves me. I couldn't even come up with a good explanation myself. But it got me thinking about all that love is.
The Ancient Greeks came up with four types of love (some say seven or eight.) I couldn't find an Ancient Greek to ask for sure, but it doesn't matter because I'm not going to talk about all of them. You can Google it if you're curious. I do want to talk about one kind of love, though. AGAPE love.
Agape love is a noble love. It is selfless, and puts the good of others before ourselves. This love keeps on loving even when the object is unlovable, unresponsive, or just plain difficult. It doesn't have to be reciprocated. Agape love, is the Jesus kind of love. The kind of love that, in the New Testament, Jesus refers to as the "New Commandment." (John 13:34, 15:12,17, along with many others.)
The kind of love the Bible instructs us to have, that Jesus calls us to in 1 Corinthians 13, is agape love. Paul explains it perfectly, but sometimes we miss the forest for the trees. Paul says that we can have all of the greatest things, the most amazing gifts, but without being able to love as Jesus, those gifts mean nothing. Beautiful words, prophecies, voices of angels are nothing without love.
Paul says that we can do all the good deeds, give to the poor, sacrifice ourselves, but there is no profit in the good things without love. All consuming, selfless, unconditional love for everyone. Even if we have all the knowledge and all the faith, faith enough to move a mountain, without love, we are nothing.
Love is long lasting, and kind. It doesn't envy, it isn't boastful, or prideful, agape love isn't rude, selfish, provoked, nor does it think evil. Love doesn't find joy in immoral or unjust behaviors, but it does find joy in truth, even when the truth is hard. Let me tell you what it does. This unbelievable agape love carries burdens, believes in truth and goodness and the like, it hopes even when it feels hopeless, and it endures. Y'all it lasts forever, even when you're working cows and fixing fence.
This love NEVER FAILS. Everything else in this entire world will fail. Knowledge will vanish, tongues will cease, prophecies will fail, but love, twue wove, It. Never. Fails.
We absolutely cannot comprehend this kind of love, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive for it. Our human nature fails us so very often, but through Paul, God lays out all the instructions we need to love. God calls us to love our neighbor, love our enemy, love our brothers, love our sisters, love Him, then Paul tells us what love is and what it is not. And we fail. We do it wrong. We are rude and prideful. We find joy in unfair behaviors. We are boastful and envious. God expects all of these things from us, but if we can find just an inkling of this amazing agape love, and hold onto it, it will never fail. God will never fail us because he is totally capable of agape love.
I'm going to touch on one more thing that I have learned. Because of our inability to grasp this Jesus style, agape love, we are incomplete. We have a hole. It is like a black hole, consuming all things in this world and it is never filled, never full, always desiring more, feeling empty. There is something that satisfies it, there is someone that makes us complete. It is not another person. It is not a drug, a vice, a drink, sex, or anything we can acquire in this fallen world.
We were created with a first love. Not Timmy from first grade or Ken the football star from high school. Little Susie isn't it and neither is college Barbie. God should be our first love.
Matthew 22:37-40 "Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Revelation 2:4 (God speaking) "Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love."
If you have not accepted, or have let go of that first love, you have a gaping hole. You will try to fill It, but it cannot be done. Without this first love you will wonder this world, hungry for something that you will never find. Anything you put into that hole will be devoured and leave you longing for something else. You will never find a spouse, a boy/girlfriend to feel whole. Your children won't complete you. Success is not enough. No addiction will ever fulfill you. All of these things will leave you wanting more.
If you want to feel whole, to be complete, to love with the kind of agape love the Bible calls us to, you have to seek God as your first love. You have to be filled with His unconditional love to be able to feel full and in turn be able to pour it out for those around you. This is just unfathomable for us. We can't understand any of it. Even as I type this, I am awestruck and baffled by this kind of love.
Paul also tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:9-12, "We know in part, and we prophecy in part, but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known." We can't perfectly understand God's perfect love because we haven't met Him face to face, but when we do, His love will consume us, and with understanding, we will see clearly. That is a promise that I look forward to.
I love each of you. I am able to partially understand what that means because I am filled with God's love. But, I will fail you. I will be rude and unkind. I'll envy and boast and sometimes find joy in iniquity. And I'll be sorry, but I won't be able to help myself because I am full of humanity. One of these days I'll be capable of true, whole, agape love, but until then, until I see God face to face, this is what I'll remember:
"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE." 1 Corinthians 13:13
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