Love transforms.
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If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love,
I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers,
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith,
so as to remove mountains, but have not love,
I am nothing.
If I give away all I have,
and if I deliver my body to be burned,
but have not love,
I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind;
love is not jealous or boastful;
it is not arrogant or rude.
Love does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrong,
but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never ends.
I Corinthians 13 1-8a
As I like to condense it, Jesus tells us to love God with all we have, and love our fellow men with like we love ourselves.
It’s demanding, hard, and not easy. But with God, all things are possible, and we will become not necessarily people of power or wisdom or strength or nobility or wealth, but people who love as he loves.
So many traps along the way to pull us from that love. And it’s not a love that says “I’m OK, you’re okay, let me pat you on the head and say you’re nice.” It’s a love that demands us to stand up and be holy. To reach out when we’re tired. To care for people we don’t like. To pray for people we know want to do us wrong. To choose the loving way when we might prefer vengeance. To deal kindly with our spouses when we want to yell. To act lovingly to our children when they reach that point we want to beat them. To avoid saying the hurtful thing about that smarmy co-worker when we have a juicy tidbit. And so on and so on, but in the end, persevering, we will stand before our Lord and hear him say, “Well done.” And know it is all worth it.
INDEED.
And, the heart is deceitfully wicked, who can know it. There is perversity in usually even the best of us to some degree--which likes to look the other way, run away; anything but buckle down and pay the price to love as Jesus Loved/Loves.
And, it IS costly. It can cost more than we can pay. And sometimes, I wonder . . . if we are not experiencing that cost, maybe we aren't loving like Christians.
Nevertheless, IT IS worth it all. Maybe not in the midst of cleaning out the outhouse pit . . . but it IS worth it--even in this life and certainly ultimately.
It is worth it in the lives of those we love, certainly. But it changes us. It helps transform us into HIS IMAGE. And He prizes that enormously more than we can understand. AND it has something to do with our eternal roles . . . and that "Greater weight of Glory" which He also wants . . . FOR US.
A lot of times we'd rather have less pain now and more comfort and joy now. Forget eternity and the rewards then.
But we know that's short-sighted. We don't encourage our children to settle for short-sighted account settling. We try and train them to delay gratification and focus on long term goals and rewards. But with God, we are too prone to act like 2-4 year olds.
But we CAN, BY HIS GRACE AND HELP choose the more excellent way. We CAN do all things through Him who strengthens us.
We even CAN, by His Spirit LEARN to be joyful and content in virtually all circumstances [I'm not there yet but I'm light years from where I used to be on that trek].
HE IS OUR LORD AND SAVIOR. HE DIED FOR US; SAVED US; FILLES US DAILY WITH HIS SPIRIT WHEN WE ASK AND COOPERATE WITH SAME. Our Names ARE IN THE LAMB'S BOOK OF LIFE! WHAT JOY. What Priceless treasure.
The noise here is chaff. The worst of the pain here is chaff. Scripture says the worst of this life is not worthy to be compared with the joys of the next life. When are we going to believe that and act like it?