“Love never fails.” 1 Corinthians 13:8
Can you remember someone who showed you love when you thought you didn’t deserve it? This expression of love sticks as a memory and a feeling long after the circumstances surrounding it have faded away. We remember the person and we remember the love shown. It is impossible to forget. This expression of love forms a powerful and permanent memory.
Today’s verse tells us why this is. Paul lets us know that true love can never ever fail. In other words love can be fail proof. When love is unconditionally given as a gift it will always lift up, put right and lighten even the heaviest of hearts. Agape love is the fail proof way to build, repair & restore every relationship we have. True love will always protect, always trust, always hope and always preserve. Love is something that we each possess but it must be given away so it does not fail.
Whenever we give unconditional love to others we produce a fail proof change in their life. This effect can last far beyond today; it can become a blessing to future people & generations. But if we selfishly withhold our love, doing nothing with it, we’ll ultimately see lives of failure & hurt rather than success & blessing.
This week let’s make our agape love work passionately in someone else’s life. After all Matthew 5:26 says we get a reward for loving the unlovely. So lets take some of our love and give it away to someone desperately in need of it. In no time at all it will lift them up, put them right and lighten their heavy heart. It will build protection, trust and hope around them. It will preserve & strengthen them and it will cause us to live a rewarded life.
HERE’S A QUICK STUDY ON “LOVE” TO ENCOURAGE YOU THIS WEEK
These scriptures will help us understand loving others the way God intended.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 – Love is…
1 Corinthians 16:14 – Do everything in love
Mark 12:29-31, Matthew 22:36-40, Leviticus 19:18 – Love your neighbor as yourself
1 John 4:8 – God is love
John 13:34-35 – Love one another
Colossians 3:14 – Put on love
John 15:13 – Laying down your life
John 3:16 – Love is a gift
1 John 4:19 – Love is who we are
1 John 4:7 – Love one another
1 Peter 4:8 – Keep loving one another
1 John 4:18 – There is no fear in love
1 Corinthians 13:13 – Love lives
Luke 6:35 – Love Extends
Matthew 5:44-48 – Love your enemies
Proverbs 10:12 – Love covers all offences
Ephesians 4:2 – Bear with one another in love
Galatians 5:22 – Fruit of the Spirit is love…
1 John 3:18 – Love in deed & truth
Romans 12:9 – Let love be genuine
Romans 13:10, Romans 13:8 – Love fulfills of the law
Romans 12:10 – Love one another
1 John 4:21 – Love your brother
John 15:9-13 – Abide in love
Colossians 3:14-15 – Put on love
1 Timothy 1:5 – Extravagant love
Galatians 5:13 – Love serve one another
James 2:8 – Love does well
Philippians 1:9 – Love abounds
John 21:15-17 – Love sustains
John 14:21 – Love manifests
Colossians 3:12-15 – Put on love
Proverbs 17:17 – Friends loves at all times
1 John 3:17 – Love is generous
2 Corinthians 5:14 – The love of Christ controls us
1 John 2:5 – Love keeps it’s word
Ephesians 6:24 – Love attracts grace
Romans 13:8-10 – Love is a debt
Romans 8:35-39 – Love joins
Revelation 2:4 – Love can be abandoned
1 John 3:16 – Love is sacrificial
Proverbs 3:3 – Love is steadfast & faithful
Hebrews 10:24 – Love can be stirred up
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 – Love abounds
Ephesians 5:1-2 – Love is a walk
Luke 10:27 – Loving God is our priority
