‘Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.’ 1 Corinthians 13:4-7(NLT)
‘This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. ‘ 1 John 4:10-16(NLT)
Ephesians 4 shows us how marriage models Christ’s relationship with His church. Looking at Christ’s life, then, will give us a model for how to practically live in ways that lead to the flourishing relationships he has designed for us.
Christ’s entire life was about sacrifice. He sacrificed the extravagant comfort of Heaven in exchange for a nomadic existence on a broken world. He sacrificed constant worship and praise in exchange for betrayal and mocking, and most significantly, He sacrifice His life in exchange for death on a cross. He did this all for us, and He did this all for love.
This is the life Paul compares to marriage. This is how husbands and wives are called to love one another, through sacrifice and humility.
In Paul’s first letter the Corinthians, he gives a long list of what love is and what it is not. Likely, you’ve heard this read at a wedding and maybe you even had it read at yours. The familiarity of the verses makes it an easy passage to skim over, but it actually calls God’s people to an extreme way of life.
Practicing patience and kindness in our relationships is rebellious to our natural, selfish ways of being. We naturally want to think primarily of ourselves, but God’s calls us to think primarily of our spouse no matter what. The verses about love are unconditional. We are to act this way no matter how our spouse responds, and that is a difficult call.
Luckily, Christ also understands that difficulty. Scripture tells us that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” meaning He did not wait for us to fix ourselves before loving us. When we do not have the strength to love our spouses in this way, we can be fueled by His love for us and hold on to the grace and love of God in our own lives.
The scriptures for today may seem impossible to live up to but remember that if you have the Holy Spirit within you, He can help guide you and lead you in the ways of the Lord. Pray that you lean on His power instead of your own.
from Pursuing Love While Considering Divorce