Day 27

What Rises — Love That Cannot Be Killed

Today's Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:7–8 (NLT)

One of the surest signs that the cross is doing its real work in a soul is the slow rising of a love that cannot be killed. Not a love that depends on the worthiness of the loved. Not a love that requires reciprocation. Not a love that gives only what it expects to receive back. But a love that bears, believes, hopes, endures — a love that has been so deeply rooted in the love of God Himself that no failure of the other to deserve it can dry it up. This is the love Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13, and it is the love that the natural, un-crucified self cannot produce. It rises only in souls where the flesh has been put to death, and the Spirit of the loving God has been given the room to express His own nature through human lips and hands and eyes.

Think about why the natural self cannot produce this kind of love. The natural self loves conditionally. It loves those who love it back. It loves those who are useful to it. It loves those who do not threaten it. It loves those who reflect well on it. And when the conditions change — when the loved one fails to love back, becomes inconvenient, threatens our standing, embarrasses us — the natural love withers, often instantly. We can see this in ourselves whenever the people in our lives stop performing the way we expected. The love that was strong while they served us grows thin when they do not. The love that was warm when they agreed with us cools when they cross us. This is the natural love of the flesh, and it is not finally love at all in the biblical sense. It is preference dressed in love's clothing.

But the love that rises in the crucified soul is different. It is sourced not in the loved one's behavior but in the Spirit of God dwelling within. It is the love that loved its enemies from the cross. It is the love that washed Judas's feet knowing what Judas was about to do. It is the love that interceded for the very people driving in the nails. This is the love God Himself has, and the love He is forming in those who have come to share His life by faith. It is the love that does not depend on its conditions, because its conditions are not in the other person — they are in the heart of God Himself.

Notice the four verbs Paul uses: bears, believes, hopes, endures. Love bears all things. The Greek word stego means to cover, to roof over. Love does not expose the failures of others to the watching world. It covers them. It hides them. It deals with them privately and with grace. Love believes all things. Not naively, but with the willingness to think the best where thinking the best is at all possible. The soul that loves does not assume the worst about people; it gives the benefit of the doubt where doubt is reasonable. Love hopes all things. Even when the present is dark, love refuses to give up on the possibility of redemption, growth, change, repentance. And love endures all things. It does not quit. It does not walk away the moment the cost rises. It stays.

This love rises in you to the degree that the self has been crucified in you. You cannot perform this love by trying harder. You will fail. The natural self cannot bear, believe, hope, and endure the way Paul describes. It does not have the resources. The flesh runs out of love within an hour of being mistreated. But the Spirit, in the soul that has been making room for Him through ongoing crucifixion, has an infinite supply. The love of God has been "shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5). The word shed abroad is the same word used for pouring out a flood. The love is in you, in flood-tide capacity, if you are in Christ. And the death of the self is what allows the floodgates to open.

Look at the people in your life right now. Look at the difficult ones, the demanding ones, the disappointing ones, the ones who do not love you back the way you wish they did. Where, in your treatment of them, has the love of the crucified life begun to rise? Where, on the other hand, are you still loving them with the conditional love of the unsurrendered flesh? The cross is doing its real work in you to the degree that the second category is shrinking and the first is growing.

This is also why love is given by Paul as the great mark of Christian maturity. It is not the gifts, however impressive. It is not the doctrine, however correct. It is not the religious activity, however constant. It is the love. "Charity never faileth." And the believer in whom this love is rising — slowly, sometimes painfully, often imperceptible to themselves — is a believer in whom the Father is being glorified, the Son is being revealed, and the Spirit is being given freedom to do the work He came to do.

May this love rise in you. May it become the mark of your life. May the people around you, for the rest of your days, encounter through you a love they cannot fully explain — because it does not, finally, come from you. It comes from the One who has crucified your flesh and made your heart a channel for His own.

Prayer

Father, You are love. And You have called me to love as You love. I cannot do this in my own strength. The natural love in me runs out within hours of being mistreated. But Your love, poured out by the Spirit, has no end. Crucify in me the self that cannot love this way, and pour out through me the love that bears, believes, hopes, and endures. Let the people in my life encounter through me the love that finally comes from You. Amen.

Today's Challenge

Identify one person in your life whom you have been struggling to love. Today, deliberately practice one of the four verbs toward them — bear, believe, hope, or endure. Cover an offense. Assume the best about an ambiguous moment. Hold onto hope for a future you cannot yet see. Stay where you wanted to leave.

"The love that rises in a crucified soul is the only love in the universe that can finally outlast all the failures of those it loves."