The Four ‘Always’ of Love

THE FOUR ‘ALWAYS’ OF LOVE
We pay lip service to love. Everyone agrees that love is a good thing. We would like to see more love in the world. We think of ourselves as being loving, even if all we do is give a helping hand to someone once in a while.
It is possible to think of ourselves as loving when we are mostly concerned with our own wants and desires, and will walk over others if they get in the way. As John puts it, “we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
God has been challenging me about the meaning of love, of what it means for me, and what it might mean for us to be a community of love. I believe we haven’t pushed through to where we need to be in relation to love, but we can.
In the famous chapter on love, 1 Corinthians 13, Paul speaks of the ‘always’ of love. “Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:7). Not sometimes, but always.
The world we live in is full of suspicion and fear. And it is not without foundation. Who can you trust? We have, justifiably, a Royal Commission into the church and other bodies into handling of cases of sexual abuse. We are wary of the stranger and fearful of violence on our public transport, not to mention in the home.
Who can we trust? How can love function in such an environment? It must be said that love cannot be naïve about the capacity of the human heart for evil and for self-deception – even among esteemed leaders. Love requires boundaries of protection for children and adults alike. Love requires openness and transparency in its dealings. Love reflects on motivations and not just behaviours and outcomes.
The church is called to be a community of love, when it is easier to be communities of cultural conformity and comfort. Love disturbs us because it summons us to love those who are different, to live and work for their best, and to believe in God’s capacity to live in and transform even the most difficult of people and circumstances.
A community of love believes radically in the potential and possibilities of all human beings, made in the image and glory of God. Jesus saw in an impetuous and emotional fisherman someone to whom He could entrust the church which emerged on the day of Pentecost.
Such love always protects, it protects others from harm; it always trusts, trusting God to be at work in ourselves and others and to hear our prayers; always hopes, sees hope and possibility for people and encourages them to live that out; always perseveres, it is a love which doesn’t give way to cynicism and despair, even when it feels like the future is bleak.
Is such love easy? I don’t believe so. It is a radical and costly love. It is a cross-shaped love, a tenacious love that will not give up. Yet, by the grace of God’s Spirit, it is transforming love, and hope-filled love, pouring into our hearts and into the lives of others. I know my own love is deficient without God’s love in me.
On this weekend, where we have come together for our annual meeting and to give thanks for God’s work among us, may we pray that God leads us to being more radically in love with Him. Out of that relationship may we always protect, always trust, always hope, always persevere, and be a community known for such love.
Where for you right now, are you being called to express the four ‘always’ of love?