Loving like God

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NLT)

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Some Bible translations describe love here as charity, but it is much more than charity we are familiar with. It is also much more than common love. It is love that is agape love. It is affection, good will, love, benevolence, brotherly love. It is true love towards God and man that develops out of sincere and fervent devotion to God.

In On This Day by Carl D. Windsor, the page for Valentine's Day includes this anecdote: "Even the most devoted couple will experience a 'stormy' bout once in a while. A grandmother, celebrating her golden wedding anniversary, once told the secret of her long and happy marriage. 'On my wedding day, I decided to make a list of ten of my husband's faults which, for the sake of our marriage, I would overlook,' she said.

"A guest asked the woman what some of the faults she had chosen to overlook were. The grandmother replied, 'To tell you the truth, my dear, I never did get around to listing them. But whenever my husband did something that made me hopping mad, I would say to myself, Lucky for him that's one of the ten!' "

God never gives up on us. His love for us endures even when we have turned away from Him. God’s love is patient and kind, not willing for any to be lost. God keeps no record of wrong, for when we are forgiven the transgression is far from Him. God does not rejoice when we fail, but instead is ready to help us. Let us all learn to love as God loves, loving all and never keeping an account of how we were wronged.