(Read 1 Corinthians 13)
My wife and I had a heated disagreement about how we should handle a big decision. She wanted to shelve it and deal with it later. I was on fire and just wanted to shout. I’m not sure I wanted to discuss it logically; I just wanted to vent. When you’re married and in a love relationship, you will disagree and even have irreconcilable differences. It was a nothing argument, and I’m sharing it now to point out that disagreements should have no bearing on love.
Unlike human love, which can be conditional on behavior or circumstances, God’s love is unconditional and relentless. It persistently pursues us through all our trials. Despite its perfect nature, God’s love is not afraid of being complex or confusing, but within its complexity always lies a purpose.
When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Hosea 1:2-3
Hosea ministered between 760 and 720 B.C. during Israel’s divided monarchy when Israel was in the north and Judah in the south. His prophecy contains a powerful metaphor, likening Gomer’s unfaithfulness to the northern kingdom of Israel’s abandonment of God, choosing to worship false gods. Instead of merely waiting for Israel’s repentance, God confronted their sin directly, refusing to ignore their transgressions.
Hosea was tasked with loving even when it seemed impossible. He was asked to love when that person might not be capable of loving back. Despite his innocence and lack of personal wrongdoing, in God’s eyes, all of Israel was unfaithful. There exists no middle ground in our relationship with God; we either remain faithfully married to Him or become like spiritual adulterers. While this notion may appear harsh by today’s standards, Hosea’s narrative illustrates the gravity of our idolatry and rejection in God’s eyes.
Looking deeper, Hosea’s account carried a message of hope: God’s relentless outpouring of love, forgiveness, and the prospect of Israel’s eventual reconciliation. This narrative also extends hope to us, showcasing the opportunity for our own reconciliation with God despite our recklessness and disobedience. Through Hosea’s prophecy, the pervasive and ever-present nature of God’s love is revealed as He employs Hosea to stir the hearts of His people.
The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
Hosea 3:1
We learn in the early chapters of Hosea’s book that despite being deeply loved, Gomer once again strayed. She was unfaithful, abused, and sold into slavery. She needed rescue. Hosea tells a strange but beautiful story that teaches us the contrast between human love and God’s love.
A parent loves a child no matter what. I love my wife no matter what or anything she may say or do. Our argument was just that; if anything, it strengthened, not strained, our love. While my love for my family and friends will never fail, it is not without disappointment. Our love relationship with God has no disappointment or failure. Any lack of understanding is on our part.
Real love, God’s love, never gives up. It never loses faith. It is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance. It creates humility and servitude, not fuzzy feelings. God’s love has no boundaries and is sometimes messy. Make no mistake, though: This messy love is a result of the pervasiveness and depth of our fallen nature, not shortcomings on God’s part. God’s messy love exposes our flaws, lusts, and battles for our ultimate perfection. His love refines us.
1980s Rock legend Alice Cooper discovered God’s relentless love through a cloudy lens of despair, self-doubt, and drug addiction.
“When you get out there, you realize that you’ve had every car, you’ve had every house and all that, you realize that that’s not the answer, that there’s a big nothing out there at the end,” he added. “Materialism doesn’t mean anything.” Years of fame, alcohol, and drug abuse drove Cooper to a breaking point.
His cocaine use nearly crippled his marriage and took his life. “I looked in the mirror, and it looked like my makeup, but it was blood coming down; I think I might have been hallucinating. I knew that I either came to a point where I accepted Christ and started living that life or I died in this,” he said. “I don’t think we accept Christ; I think we accept the fact that He accepted us.”
God’s love believes in the best for every person, including Alice Cooper. It endures all things the world can throw at it. There’s nothing His love can’t do.
Cooper continued, “I went to my pastor, and I said, ‘I think I got to quit being Alice Cooper now,’ and he goes, ‘Really? Do you think God makes mistakes? Look where He put you. You’re Alice Cooper, now following Christ, and you’re a rock star, but you don’t live the (typical) rock star life? Your lifestyle is now your testimony.’“
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:7
Paul wanted to demonstrate to the readers of the church in Ephesus that unless our actions and efforts are driven by love, they are worthless to God. For Christians, love is everything. Paul described real love as inexhaustible. Love never says I’ll only go so far. It’s not even limited by reason. Love is never constrained by convenience or by what we’re willing to put up with. As God proved with Israel, the church in Ephesus, Alice Cooper, and us every single day, His love doesn’t quit.
We often miss that real love isn’t our love for God; it’s His love for us. His love pulls us to Him, yet we still find ways to resist; pushing back to our comfort zone, we forget our true and rightful place in this existence. Our one purpose is to love and please God, while so many times we love and please anyone but.
Pastor and author Paul Tripp said, “We are the unfaithful ones; we run after other lovers. There are moments in my marriage where I would rather win an argument than do what pleases my Lord. There are moments where I would rather use my money to buy me a nicer steak or another pair of shoes than to give service of God’s kingdom work. There are times when I treat people as objects for my pleasure rather than as those made in the image of God.”
Experiencing true, Godly love authentically connects us with our families, our friends, His children, His greatest desires, His greatest designs, and His greatest plans for us. The kind of love Paul wrote about in Corinthians was not an exposition of human love but love breathed by God. All my weaknesses, flaws, and addictions come to light through God’s love, and I am reconciled with Him. God’s love will continue to pursue me because of my sins, but it will rescue me from the darkness of my soul.
God’s love wins. Saves. Rescues.
“Someone challenged me to replace the word love in this passage (1 Corinthians 13) with my name. I did and became a liar. The passage set a standard I could not meet. No one can meet it… except Jesus. So rather than let this scripture remind us of a love we cannot produce, let it remind us of a love we cannot resist—God’s love!”
Max Lucado
Key Application:
- Read 1 Corinthians 13 – The “Love Chapter.” Pray for the lost and the broken. Pray for those people who need God.
- If you substitute your name for love, how do you stack up to the truth of the passage? Is it a testimony or a work in progress when you substitute your name for “love?” Let this motivate you in all you do and all you are.
Where else in your life can you live out the teachings of Christ? Look for next week’s Devotion.