Love Never Fails

And we have come to the finale in my blog series on love. Those two weeks have certainly sped by!

My plan was to always post the final one today, on Valentine's Day. I feel it is very apt to be looking at how true 'love never fails' on February 14th, the National Day of love.

The last couple of weeks we have been looking at what love is, as we studied 1 Corinthians 13, the famous 'love passage' that is often read at weddings. Verses 4-8 say:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

Each blog post has taken what love is, topic by topic, from that passage and looked deeper into each action. Our final thought today is that 'love never fails', or, in other words, 'love never ends'.

When you translate the original Greek word for 'fail' in this passage, it literally means 'to fall'. By saying 'love never falls', is to say that love will not falter or give up. Love will remain steadfast and faithful.

Back at the beginning of this series, I mentioned that real love is an action, not a feeling. Love is not just about romance and that warm, gushy feeling you have for your significant other. There's a saying: 'actions speak louder than words', and it's so true. No matter how many times you tell someone you love them, unless you follow through with how you live and act towards that person, those words mean nothing. Love lives out a constant way of life that demonstrates how much that other person means to you: it's unconditional, faithful and unwavering.

In the above mentioned passage of 1 Corinthians 13, the original Greek word for 'love' is 'agape', which is different from other Greek words commonly used for love. 'Eros' refers to sexual love and 'Philos' refers to affection and friendship. Agape love is used here to talk about the kind of love we should demonstrate to others, as it means to be concerned with others rather than with oneself, and is a choice rather than an emotion or a feeling. It's talking about self-sacrifice, offering devotion and faithful commitment unconditionally.

As you celebrate Valentine's Day, take a moment to pause and really consider what love really is, and reflect on how you can better show the people in your life this special kind of agape love.

Thank you for journeying with me through this series! I hope you have found it inspiring and helpful, and that it encourages you to live a life powered by love to others. What a better place this world would be if we could all start to show this kind of love to one another, as it's the kind of love that God has shown to us.