LESSONS ON TRUE LOVE
“God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. God is love, and he that live in love live in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16
The Greatest commandments are on love. “Jesus, Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40
To understand God’s concept of love, love from heaven, how we should all love, what real love embodies, and what God, who is love, embodies, we read the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 13 1-13. This shows us how to love someone the way that God desires for us to love, and to be loved so that we may love and be loved freely and purely.
Lessons on true Love! God’s love!
Here are the lessons to learn from Corinthians 13 1-13
1. Love with patience. Be as patient as we want others to be with us. Be as patient as God is with us, infinitely patient.
2. Love without envy. Instead, wish the best and the holiest for each. If you have temptation to envy or judge, react with prayer for holiness.
3. Love does not boast and is not proud, rather humble in all that we do
4. Love does not dishonor. Love honors each person an creation of God
5. Love is not easily angered. We would not others being easily angered with us.
6. Love does not keep a record of all wrongs; We should forgive the wrongs of others. Not forgiving, and keeping track of wrongs, redirects the focus from our wrongs and trying to better ourselves. We are called to forgive infinitely. To forgive means to let things go, to not hold on. We all make mistakes. God loves each one of us despite all the sinful things we do. We go to confession and he forgives us. He does not keep tally of all our wrongs. He hopes and expects that we will grow and overcome from our mistakes.
7. Love is truth. Love should never dabble in lies, deception or evil. Love is pure.
8. Love is protective of all that is good
9. Love trusts. God calls us to trust.
10. Love hopes. We are joyful in the hope that God gives us. Turning to God always gives us hope through our prayers. We should pray for others.
11. Love preserves. We should always preserve what is good and holy and inspire for what is good and holy. We should always preserve love and the faith.
12. Love never fails. God’s love is infinite. We should always try to love like God, infinitely and unconditionally.
If we are tempted to not love, such as those we would consider our enemies, we should acknowledge that, and pray for God to love that person through us. We are called to love and forgive even those that we would consider as an enemy. Jesus forgave those enemies who were against Him when He was on the cross, after all the unthinkable was done to Him. He did everything He did to show us the way to salvation, and forgiveness and love go hand in hand.
“I am love and mercy itself. ... Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. ... My mercy is greater than your sins, and those of the entire world. ... I let My Sacred Heart be pierced with a lance, thus opening wide the source of mercy for you. Come then with trust to draw graces from this fountain. ... The graces of My mercy are drawn by the means of one vessel only, and that is trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.” From the Diary of Saint Faustina with Jesus
The Word of God on Love
1 Corinthians 13 1-13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.