THE LOVE THAT NEVER FAILS

There are many forces and influences on the earth but none as prolific and powerful as the power of “Christlike love” or “agape”!

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance…love will last forever!” (1 Corinthians 13:4–8, NLT)

Love manifests in different forms but it is to Christlike love (agape) that I presently wish to direct our thought. This is the only love that never fails! It will never become obsolete! It will last forever!

Agape love is defined not in terms of feelings but rather by the loving acts it engenders as our reference scripture indicate. Its character is based on God’s nature and actions because God is love.

Christlike love is the love that values, esteems, and is ready to serve. It expresses that unconditional, utmost and self-sacrificing form of love which always sees something interminably invaluable in its object.

It is no surprise then that agape is the character of the love behind God’s decision to redeem mankind from the bondage of sin and it is agape that motivated Jesus to willingly lay down His life as a ransom for the sins of humanity. “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NLT).

Christlike love is the purest of all, and is able to modify all other forms of love – affectionate love, appetitive and self-interested love, etc. – infusing them with selfless and noble attributes that endure. For example the Bible urges, “if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:17–18, ESV).

By agape we must love one another sincerely or without hypocrisy. By agape we must love life (1 Peter 3:10), for only with Christlike love are we able to engage with the true concerns of life and living. In contrast, Jesus reproved the love of life that is not concerned with the real object of living but rather occupied with an undue desire to preserve life (John 12:25).

By agape we must also love God in return. ‎"We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19) and showed us priceless kindness while we were still sinners. There is no limit to His love & mercy toward us, or to the might of His power that is able to transform our lives.

And we know and are confident that God’s love has achieved its goal in us, and that we walk in the love of God that never fails because we live a life of obedience toward Him. As John noted in his first letter, “those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him.” (1 John 2:5, NLT)

When we love in this selfless, Christlike manner that has it source in God, and also understand that we are loved by God perfectly, all fear is banished for there is no room left for it to thrive. God is love and His love working in you will never fail!