So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I Corinthians 13:13
(Love) endures all things.
I Corinthians 13:7
As a mom was about to send her son off to college, she told him, “I will always love you, no matter what!” The son decided to challenge his mom. He asked her, “Will you still love me if I commit a crime and end up in prison?” She answered, “Yes, I will still love you, even if you commit a crime and end up in prison. Crimes have consequences. I will not be happy that you committed a crime. I will not be happy to see you in prison. But I will come and visit you. And I will still love you.”
Real love has no conditions and knows no boundaries. I remember years ago I was nervous about making a decision in ministry that might upset people. Upsetting a lot of people is oftentimes the cause of priests being transferred to another parish. Sometimes priests make decisions and they don’t really know what the reaction will be, so there is a risk for reward, but that risk also comes with failure. In a heavy moment of conversation, my spiritual father said, lightheartedly but also purposefully, “what’s the worst that can happen? They can’t take away Christmas. They can’t take away your birthday.” When I think about that phrase, I always add “they can’t take away your salvation.” Only God determines that. And along with this, no one can take away love from us. Nothing can make us stop loving someone. We can love even people who reject us. No one can take away someone’s love from us. Using the example of the person going to prison, the state can take away our freedom, but the state cannot stop a family from loving someone who is in prison. They cannot stop someone in prison from loving their family. They can prevent someone from seeing their family or talking to their family, but they can’t stop someone from loving their family. Because love is inside of us. It is a choice that we make, to love others. It is a choice that others make, to love us. And no one can take what is inside of us away. No one can take away love, or faith, or hope. Because these are choices, they are not feelings, they are not possessions.
In every life, there will be things we endure. Whether that is failure, or illness, or a job change, a move, a setback, etc. And love can endure all of those things. When two people get married, they choose one another. They continue to choose one another because love is what binds them together. Not possessions or successes, but love. And love endures when we choose to let it endure. One can be disappointed but still choose to express love. One can fail and still be loved by others.
God loves us. That never changes. God may not love what we do, but He loves us. God wants us to succeed, He wants us to inherit His Kingdom. He is like the teacher who wants every student to get an A, and who gives every student every chance to do that. He starts the class by saying “The ‘A’ is yours to lose.” Most of us have had teachers in our lives who were not like that. There are some (thankfully few) teachers who seem to not want their students to succeed, who begin by saying “Not everyone will pass,” as if they are hoping not everyone will. There are teachers who say “virtually no one will get an ‘A’,” as if they as hoping no one will. God has said that there will be a judgment between this life and eternal life, and He has told us that not everyone will make it. That is not like the hard teacher or professor who says not everyone will pass. Our failure to enter into the Kingdom of heaven will be God’s judgment on bad decisions we have made.
We are to love God in all times and in all circumstances. We can choose to continue to love God even in the most dire of circumstances. Just as His love for us endures our mistakes, our love for Him should endure regardless of our misfortunes. Love is supposed to be enduring because the choice to love is supposed to be enduring. Love involves sacrifice, and sometimes sacrifice means overlooking an unfulfilled desire for the sake of the relationship. If we could not endure setbacks in relationships, no relationship would endure, including our relationship with the Lord. Love should be a mindset that because of God’s love, that one can endure any setback, any difficult situation. Endure doesn’t mean succeed or survive. Endure means to pass through a situation with faith in God and love for Him intact.
Love should endure the things that happen between people and between people and God. God loves us even when things happen between us and Him that are of our doing, not His. We are supposed to love God in the setbacks, those caused by us, and those that are the result of living in a fallen world.
Lord, thank You for the gift of love, and for the gift of Your love. Help me to endure the setbacks that happen between me and the people I love. Give us a spirit of patience and forgiveness when things go amiss. Help me to endure spiritual setbacks, to seek repentance, and to have confidence that You will not reject my heart when it is crushes and humbled. Strengthen my faith so that even in the times when I can’t seem to hear Your voice, I am still filled with love for You and for my neighbors. Amen.
Love is a choice to endure all things. The power of love helps to make this endurance possible.
