Recently I was asked, “Should we stop loving others if they stop loving us? Love is never supposed to fail, to give up, but does love give up if someone wants you to stop loving them?"
I think the answer is found in 1 Corinthians 13.
“Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. 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, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
Love is patient, and is kind; love envies not; love vaunteth itself not and is not puffed up, Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Love never fails; but where there be prophecies, they shall fail; where there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.”
Before ever giving the definition, Paul makes the point that everything we do is meaningless without love. But couldn't you then say love gives meaning? It is never pointless to show love; it is never useless.
Even when the other person is done, even when they reject you, love still endures.
Let me give you another example.
Jesus told us to love our enemies, to love those who hate us. If we are supposed to pray and care for the people who hate us, then why should we stop loving those who have given up on us? The people who reject our love are no less in need of it than the people who accept it.
It isn’t wrong to keep loving people who don’t want us anymore. And as painful as it is to continue caring about people who push us away, we have to remember that it is never pointless.
God still loves the whole world, which rejects Him time and time again. To love like Christ means that sometimes, we are going to face that same rejection. God knows exactly how it hurts.
We can believe Him when He says that love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all things. He more than anyone else understands how love never fails.
I think the answer is found in 1 Corinthians 13.
“Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. 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, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
Love is patient, and is kind; love envies not; love vaunteth itself not and is not puffed up, Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Love never fails; but where there be prophecies, they shall fail; where there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.”
Before ever giving the definition, Paul makes the point that everything we do is meaningless without love. But couldn't you then say love gives meaning? It is never pointless to show love; it is never useless.
Even when the other person is done, even when they reject you, love still endures.
Let me give you another example.
Jesus told us to love our enemies, to love those who hate us. If we are supposed to pray and care for the people who hate us, then why should we stop loving those who have given up on us? The people who reject our love are no less in need of it than the people who accept it.
It isn’t wrong to keep loving people who don’t want us anymore. And as painful as it is to continue caring about people who push us away, we have to remember that it is never pointless.
God still loves the whole world, which rejects Him time and time again. To love like Christ means that sometimes, we are going to face that same rejection. God knows exactly how it hurts.
We can believe Him when He says that love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all things. He more than anyone else understands how love never fails.
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