“The word ‘Love’ goes back to the very roots of the English language. Old English lufu is related to Old Frisian luve, Old High German luba, Gothic lubo. There is a cognate lof in early forms of the Scandinavian languages. The Indo-European root is also behind Latin lubet meaning “it is pleasing” and lubido meaning “desire”. The word is recorded from the earliest English writings in the 8th century.”
-GOOGLE.
With all the wondrous things that Love is it is little wonder that we very quickly lose sight of its many incapabilities, Love’s disability. As a world, we have conditioned ourselves to believe that Love; that all consuming, unassuming, fully-loaded, potential-igniting virtue, has the power to do all things. Love can cancel debts, cover a multitude of heinous sins, leap over tall buildings unaided and so on.
I’m not sure that I agree.
Sure the Bible speaks of a perfect love but I think Biblical love manages to live up to all its professions simply because it is inhuman in nature. 1 Corinthians 13 is an oft quoted litany of love.
“4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious (proud), does not display itself haughtily. 5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. 7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes (love never gives up, never loses faith, is alway hopeful and endures through every circumstance-NLT), is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. 8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].”
1 Corinthians 4-8 (Amplified version)
Sound too much? Maybe it’s the version of the Bible I’m using. Let’s check an easier translation.
“Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. 8-10 Love never dies.”
-1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (Message version)
Uhhhm, yeah, this type of love is a serious matter. Lol.
Love, this 1 Corinthians 13 type of Love often quoted at weddings, describes the same kind of love that Romans 8:38 & 39 confirms. It is a love that gives constantly in the face of distress, peril and persecutuion and expects nothing in return. This is a love that is constantly patient, forever abiding. A love that is kind, that rejoices in truth no matter how bitter that truth is. A love ready to contend with principalities, indeed to sacrifice life, to outlive death. Ladies and gentlemen, I humbly submit that this love is unattainable by human effort alone. Our humanity is simply too selfish of its own to sustain such a love.
This type of love, real love, is simply divine. Literally.
What disturbs me is the fact that our world has placed human love on such a pedestal, that in its name we demand the divine from mere humans. We have been conditioned to believe that love contains magic powers that can cure the human in us and inject us with some godlike propensities to perform Herculean exploits.
What magic powers do you think love alone contains that allows it to erase our humanity and make us gods? Your love for me, and my love for you, does not extinguish the human in me. Your love only improves on the flawed person that I am, sometimes to the point where I am radically changed from the person I originally was. But change like this takes dedication, intention, and diligent effort on my part, it takes strength, hope and kindness on yours, in addition to love. Love alone is not enough. My friend Aima, once told me a story from her dad. He asked if she would go to the market and buy only salt if she wanted to make a pot of soup. She replied in the negative. He then said, yet without salt, the soup would be incomplete and in fact have a bad taste, no? She affirmed. He informed her that this is the same way it is with love and marriage. You NEED love in a marriage, but love on its own is not enough.
Love is not a magic potion that wipes away the realities of our humanity. Our flaws still remain. It is up to each of us to constantly make an effort to discipline those parts of our humanity that shield the deity present in each of us, the deity that was deposited at our creation (Genesis 2:7).
It is doing this that we achieve that 1 Corinthians 13 type L.O.V.E. That divine love, the real Love. It is certainly possible to attain but it requires dedication to curb our humanity; selfishness, self-aggrandisement, ambition, desire, greed and so on, and cultivate our divinity; humility, kindness, faith, holiness and more.
Love is possible for humans to attain because when we are connected to the Divine, we are superhuman…Psalm 82:6 says, “Know ye not that ye are gods?”
Oh Wendelyn! 