Active Love

If you’ve ever watched a romantic movie, it seems pretty clear how love is supposed to look. Love is butterflies in the stomach; it’s looking deeply into each other’s eyes; it’s thinking about nothing other than the other person. Even with non-romantic love, it’s something that’s supposed to make you feel good. Or maybe love is never giving up on a person, even when they treat you badly.

Today’s passage in the Bible tells us that love looks very different from any of these.

What does love look like? It’s patient, kind, humble, respectful, forgiving, protective, trusting, hopeful, and persevering. Love is not just a feeling towards someone, but the way that you treat them. To show love means to give someone the care and respect they deserve, knowing that they are made in God’s image just like you.

Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love others (Matthew 22:37–39). Whether someone is a best friend, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a mother, a brother, a classmate, or even someone you don’t get on with, God wants you to show them the love described here. And God wants you to be treated this way, too.

Questions: 

1. From the list of what love is in 1 Corinthians 13, what aspect of love do you find the easiest? What do you find the hardest? How could you work on that? 
2. If a friend had a boyfriend or girlfriend who didn’t love them like this, how could you help them? 
3. Who is someone in your life to whom you could show patient, kind, and respectful love? How might you do that today?

Prayer:

Gracious Father, you love me with an everlasting love. Help me to love you in all of my words and actions. Help me to love others the same way you have loved me. By your Spirit, grant me the strength to love others in the ways that I find difficult. Amen.