Is that what love is?

Unconditional love.

It's an intriguing concept. And it is often attributed to mothers and fathers, representing the deep love we have for their children, even before birth. It is also attributed to God, typically because of that most famous of all verses, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

Unconditional love, however, is often misinterpreted to mean unconditional acceptance, as in -- no matter what you do, no matter how you treat me, no matter how many times you spit in my face, it's OK. This attitude reduces parents, lovers, even God himself to nothing more than doormats and makes a mockery of what love, true unconditional love, really is.

We can know what love is because the Lord God revealed it to us in the words Paul penned in I Corinthians chapter 13.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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."

I love almost everything about this passage. Because of its clear definitions, I can always know what a loving response is going to look like.

Love is patient. OK, with practice I can usually manage patience, be that with a child, a spouse, an aging parent or a surly clerk, OK. Patience. Check.

Love is kind. Kindness is defined as considerate, generous, friendly. So far, so good, except I need to work on that generosity thing.

It does not envy. OK, getting a little tougher now. My dad had a favorite saying when envy entered his heart, which it frequently did. "I wish I had that (fill in the blank) and he had a feather up his nose. Then we'd both be tickled."

It does not boast. One of my bosses at Diner's Club once allowed that if you didn't toot your own horn, no one would know you were there. Yet love does not self-promote.

It is not proud. Pride, to me, is most clearly pictured in Jesus' observation of the two men at the Temple. You know the man I mean, the one thanking God that he was not like other men " -- robbers, evildoers, adulterers -- or even like this tax collector." in Luke 18:11.

Love is not rude, nor self-seeking, nor easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs. (If love did keep a record of wrongs, it would also most assuredly be more easily angered, to say nothing of rude and self-seeking.)

Notice the progression? It is nigh unto impossible to be kind if you're impatient. And it's hard to celebrate someone else's good fortune if you're lacking in generosity. Do you see a pattern developing?

But now we come to verse six where things get a little sticky. "Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth."

And the truth is, we're a mess. Pigs wallowing in slop, what with our adulteries, our false accusations, our expense account padding and our petty larcenies. We favor the rich and oppress the poor. We bear false witness when it makes us look good and we throw anyone -- mother, father, husband, wife, even sons and daughters -- right under the bus if it gets us where we want to be. (I only recently learned that whole "under the bus" phrase. I wondered where all those tire tracks on my back came from through the years. Now I know.)

The juxtaposition of these two observations on love is not an accident.

Love is perhaps no more powerful than when truth is revealed, dark corners of the heart are illuminated and man's abject condition is exposed. Because when we face the truth about ourselves and understand the truth of all that Christ accomplished through his life, through his sacrificial death and his resurrection (which brings us new life), only then we can join in the rejoicing of a love that "always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres" and finally and forever, "never fails."

It does not fail because the Lord has promised, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline, so be earnest and repent" in Revelation 3:19.

The truth is God does love the world and everyone in it. So much so that he did not spare his only son, that the wages of our sin could be paid by his death. Will we respond to this vast outpouring of love and compassion or will we leave God's great love unrequited?

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." John 14:21 (NIV)

I don't have all the answers, but I know the One who does. Let's walk together for awhile and discover Him, together.

Dawn