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)