8Charity [God’s kind of love] never faileth. [simple_tooltip content=’1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.’](1 Corinthians 13:1-13)[/simple_tooltip], [KJV, brackets mine]
There is a big difference between a fallen human being’s love and God’s love. Sinful mankind’s corrupt nature doesn’t have access to or understand God’s kind of love. The Bible says God is love [simple_tooltip content=’He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.’](1 John 4:8)[/simple_tooltip], and any man or woman who does not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior does not know God’s love.
People have written millions of songs, plays, movies, and stories about love, but many of them are not God’s kind of love. Human love and God’s kind of love aren’t in the same class. Essentially, human love is selfish, and God’s love is unselfish. Human love says, “I’ll love you as long as you do what I want you to do or as long as I feel like it.” God’s love is unconditional.
First Corinthians 13:4-8 lists the remarkable characteristics of God’s love. Even few Christians fully appreciate how unique His love is. We often think God loves us in the way we have been loved in the past, but that’s not so. Our bad experiences often prevent us from accepting God’s love. We lower Him to our level and think His love is conditional and proportional to our performance. That’s how everyone else loved us, but not God. His love is like no other love we have ever experienced.
God’s love never fails, even when we do. His love is unconditional. Since we didn’t do anything to earn it in the first place, He doesn’t withdraw it when we don’t deserve it. He loves us because He is love, not because we are lovable.
Make the decision today to renew your mind in the area of God’s kind of love for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you what His love is all about. This is a revelation that will change your entire life!
