Something Borrowed – Commitment to What Love Is

This is the second of possibly three posts that I am taking from the commitment ceremony that I presided over a few weeks ago. While considering scripture references for the message I automatically shied away from some passages that some folks might consider overused and tired but as I further considered the two who were committing themselves to each other, babes in faith, and the likelihood that there would be those who would benefit from the milk of the scriptures instead of the bread or meat amongst their work friends it seemed fitting to use the one that I felt led to go with.

 

From my ceremony text with the names changed to offer the participants’ privacy:

      The Apostle Paul told us what love is in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8a “Love is patient and kind. It does not envy, nor does it boast; it is not proud. Love is not rude and is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, trusts, hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.”

      For love to do all of those things it takes effort and a commitment to make the effort to love well. To be really good at it takes practice. Like anything else we want to be good at, we must commit to practice and commit to be humble when we don’t love as well as we should.

      I don’t believe that Jesus is in love with us. He is the greatest example of commitment to love that we have. The scriptures are full of how He acted towards us and His final sacrifice that he freely gave for us is the perfect example of what love is, he totally committed Himself to love us.

      Love is a commitment to sacrifice what we want so that we can give to another and be that person the other wants and needs us to be.

      Mary grew in her love for John; first as friends and then over time she grew to love him as a woman loves a man and committed her heart to him.

We need to commit ourselves to what love is, not what we think it should look like using the world’s standards, but by what the Word of God says. Anything less than a full commitment allows us too wide of an opening to deviate to serve our own needs.

God is Love. (1 John 4: 8)

 

Something Borrowed – Love is a Verb

A few weeks ago I had the great privilege to officiate over the commitment ceremony for two of my friends and have been very blessed by the experience. Something borrowed? I decided on using “Love is a Verb” as the central theme of the message for the ceremony. I “borrowed” the theme from a couple of sources; one being the sermon Dr. Rick Lyon while the other being the outline for a sermon that I carried in my bible for a long time before Dr. Lyon used it.  I was encouraged by the previous uses of the theme and I took them as confirmation that the concept was solid, even if I was my own source…

My plan for the next two or three posts is to borrow from the ceremony by using excerpts from the text and either expound a bit more or let them stand as is for comment and the hoped for blessing they could be to you the reader and me the writer. The title of the message is “Love is a Verb; Commitment a Higher Calling”

From the text with the names changed to offer the participants’ privacy:

      Love is a verb. Love is the action that we take, how we treat each other, and how we care for each other.

 

      Being “in love” is something that happens to us and it is a fine thing, a wonderful thing. Still, even when we are in love, we must choose how we will love someone:

      As a friend

      As a brother or sister

      Or, as men and women are meant to love each other

      In Mathew 22: 37-40 Jesus said “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

      Jesus didn’t say “be in love with everyone”, he told us to love them and act like it.

      John fell in love with Mary right from the start; he looked for ways to spend time with her and get to know her and to find some way to express his feelings for her. He grew in his love for Mary and committed in his heart to love her as a man is meant to love.

I think I’ll stand by this as is and simply wonder what would happen if a church preached the two great commandments while the congregation found and made great ways to implement them. It would be simple and yet simply powerful.

Cindy and I 37 years ago this past week exiting our ceremony.