Love is Steady

This week I am posting on this theme: “Fill in the blank: Love is________.”

Love is steady.

What do I mean by that? Real God-powered love is constant and consistent.

Love is constant in that it always perseveres (1 Corinthians 13:7). When we are loving with a divinely powered love it will be steady and constant. It will not fade away or turn off because God’s Spirit who is in our hearts making that love possible does not change, wane, leave, or turn off. This is very different from the ideas of love so popular I our culture today. Love is seen as something fickle and fading. We fall in and out of love. When Your love for others is born out of a living and vital love for God, it sticks, stays, survives, and strengthens. Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8).

Love is consistent in that it does not pick and choose who to love, or when to love. Again, this goes against much of what we are taught in our culture about love. Where it is very natural for us to pick and choose who to be loving to and when it best suits us, a God-driven love is very much the opposite. Anyone can love their friends, Godly love moves us to love even our enemies. As Jesus says in Matthew 5:43-48 (NIV),

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

This does not mean we need to like that bad things people do to us or to the people around us. For instance the loving thing to do for a criminal is to hold them accountable for his crimes. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth (1 Corinthians 13:6, NIV). But loving our enemies does mean we cannot be malicious back to them. We need to treat them the same way God treats us; with patience, mercy, love, kindness and justice.

Love is constant and consistent. Love is steady.