Speaker: Bonnie Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | My command is this: “Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”  John 15:12-13

“Your love was fake,” the social media post read.  “But the pain it caused was very real.”  It’s a sad truth—to love, to be in relationship with another human inevitably involves experiencing pain in one way or another.   To simply live in this world involves rubbing shoulders with people that we don’t even like, let alone love.  But, love—the kind that the Apostle Paul wrote about in the Bible book of 1 Corinthians, is the kind of love which fulfills promises, honors others and keeps peace in relationships.  It is more than just a nice idea in the Bible.  It is a way of life which allows God to touch other people through our lives.  The Greek word for love there, is agape, which occurs when we make the decision to love.  This love isn’t something that you “fall into” through emotions or attraction.  We may need God’s help, and lots of it, to live out agape love.  God always promises to help us love in this way!

In talking about this quality which we so badly need today Paul makes a big, sweeping statement about love’s nature when he writes, “Love never fails.”  What a claim!  Paul, do you really mean to say love never fails!?  Never is a long time.  Was Paul just being poetic, saying something that sounded really beautiful, but is completely untrue in the world of reality?

The word translated “fail” is the same word that was used of a Greek actor who messed up his lines and would be booed or hissed off the stage.  So Paul is saying that on the stage of life, love is bound to win.  It is certain to succeed, and that those who would practice it will never be defeated no matter how poorly they appear to be playing their part (from their vantage point) on the stage of life.

There’s no poetry involved.  Paul is simply stating a fact:  The agape love that God can help you extend to others has power that transcends human logic, beyond an “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth.” This love transcends our human tendency to put ourselves before others.  It won’t fail because it is in line with what Jesus did for us on the cross.  Jesus sacrificed himself for us and thus, the Christian life is a sacrificial one.  This is why, when agape love is put to the test, it always succeeds in your marriage, your family relationships, and the office, shop or factory where you work.

Then Paul stresses the permanency of this love.  In a real sense he proclaims the final victory of love as he writes, “Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge it will be done away.”  Here Paul speaks of three spiritual gifts but says that the effect of love continues when Christ’s coming shall have set aside the gifts which were given to the church.

There will come a day in your life when everything that you possess will fall away, but love will live on and on.  Paul is saying that the effect of love lives far beyond our own lives.  Agape love in our lives is endowed with an eternal quality since love is of God and God is love (see Romans 5:5 and 1 John 4:7).

Yes, fake love does fail.  But the agape love that the Christ-follower is called to, is the strongest love of all.  This love never fails.  Who in your life needs love that never fails?  Ask God to help you make the decision to put the good of that person before yourself today and put love to the test.

Resource reading: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13