Years ago, in an East African country, a group of people walked right on past a government hospital on their way to get treatment for their sick friend who they were carrying. They passed right by the government hospital even though they had to carry their friend even farther in order to reach a mission hospital. When they finally arrived at the mission hospital, and after rushing their friend in for care, they were asked why they didn’t stop at the closer hospital?  The loving friends said, “the medications may be the same, but the hands are different!            Think about that….                                                

From 1 Corinthians 12-13   Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church various kinds of gifts….. But earnestly desire the even higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. The way of love.                                                       

When Paul encourages them to pursue the greatest of all the gifts, he is not saying that there is no love in the congregation. But he is suggesting that their love does not measure up to the love of Christ! The Love that God showed us when He sent His Son.  Genuine love is selfless.                                                                                   

At the time of Paul’s letter, and maybe even more now, what people call “love” is so much less.  Most times “love” ends up being self-serving rather than giving. People love material things because of their worldly value. They love things that are unique, or that others desire, things that give them social status. In too many ways real love has been cheapened to the point of worthlessness. How often do we hear; I love that car, or I love that actor or actress, or I love chocolate! Really? Too often people demonstrate this love of things in their dealings with people. Motives are selfish, and their actions are designed to benefit themselves.                    

Real love is active! People spend a lot of time talking about love. Often discussing their emotions, their concern or their empathy for others, But they may never put that love and concern into action!  In some ways, what passes for love is nothing more than outward idealism, or even self-righteousness. It often creates conversation or discusses plans, but never actually addresses the real needs or problems people face. Too often our love is passive rather than active. It tends to be thoughtful rather than actively involved in the needs of others.

Genuine love is also enduring! But today’s worldly love often grows cold very quickly. We get excited about a new project or need. But as soon as that need falls out of the spotlight, the love that once seemed so strong, quickly grows cold. Sometimes it just feels good to be a part of something! When it’s in fashion, or when “everyone is doing it”.  But genuine love endures even when the world’s attention has shifted to other things. Genuine love continues to give until the needs have been met, or the problem has been solved.                                                

God’s love is genuine love!  What’s much different from so much of the love we see around us today, and different from the love that Paul must have seen in the Corinthian church, is that God’s love demonstrates genuine love in his dealings with us! God’s love is above all else a selfless love. There was nothing for God to gain that He didn’t already have by sending His Son. And we had nothing to offer God in exchange for what He was going to do for us.
The total selflessness of God’s love is what makes it so unbelievable, and so hard for many people to accept. God’s love is active. He is the one who acted. He reached out in a miraculous and decisive way to rescue and deliver us from the grip of the devil. He took the initiative.  If God had not acted on our behalf, we would have no hope!  

On our own, we are by nature unable to respond to God. Unable to take one step! There is nothing passive about the love of God, who sent His Son in the form of a servant to redeem us.

Paul used active words to describe God’s love in this letter to the Corinthians.  

God’s love is also enduring and everlasting. What God did for us has eternal consequences! That is because He has rescued and redeemed us. Because He has placed His name on us and called us to be His own by making us His children, we share an eternal relationship with Him through faith. The result of the covenant He made with His people is that His love does not end! His mercy endures forever!                                  

Only His love, enables us to love in a genuine way. God’s love for us, love that is selfless, active, and enduring… gives us the ability to begin to love in the same way. His Spirit works in our lives to create the same kind of compassion and concern that moved Him to give of Himself so that we could live!  It is God’s love that enables us to give of ourselves in truly selfless ways.       

When our hands give and share and touch lives with God’s love, they will be different hands. The hands of the missionaries. The hands that expect nothing in return but have already been blessed. Because God could not possibly love us any more than He already does, we do not have to serve others to please Him but can simply love others because He already loved us.   We do not have to decide whether one is worthy of our love, because we were not worthy of the love we received. How much easier is it to love our neighbors, and even our enemies knowing that?                                                                       

God’s love working through us is not for our benefit, but for the benefit of those we seek to help. It means that our hands will be more like His hands. Hands that reach out to touch, to heal, to console. Hands that comfort and lift up! Our love can be changed into a kind of love that is giving and caring.  A love that does not count the cost or look for the reward. If the love of Christ becomes the pattern for our love, we will be changed.  Instead of talking about our love and concern, we will demonstrate that love and concern.                                                           

God’s love for us is that kind of love, and as His love works in our hearts, we too can love in this new way. This Godly way that does not look like the love the world knows. God’s love will help our love to be enduring as well. Genuine love is patient, and long suffering. It will endure those who are “hard to love”.  Real love will remember that we are not easy for God to love either. And yet God always remains faithful to us. He loved us even when we were unlovable! And even died for us while we were still sinners! 

Genuine love will be ready to forgive and not keep track of wrongs. It will accept those that others see as unacceptable. The love God demonstrated to us is the kind of love He wants us to practice in our own lives. Love can transform what may seem to be the most insignificant action into a gift.     

  Jeremiah Wrote in Lamentations 3:

 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
    the object of their taunts all day long.

He has filled me with bitterness;
    he has sated me with wormwood.

He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
    and made me cower in ashes;

my soul lacks any peace;
    I have forgotten what happiness is;

so, I say, “My endurance has perished;
    so has my hope from the Lord.”

But soon after, Jeremiah continues;

But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness oh Lord.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”                                                                                                                                                                       

Will we grow bitter, or hide when we become the laughingstock or are ridiculed for our faith? Or will we remember the Hope and Steadfast love of our Lord along with Jeremiah?  Enduring, and forgiving. Restoring relationships and brotherhood, especially in our own Church as Paul called on the Corinthians to do?  We are called to seek as Paul said, “the most excellent way” The way of genuine love! And our model of perfect love, will always be the love of Christ. A love that is selfless, active, and enduring. A love that accepts, builds up, and reaches out in forgiveness. It will be a love that is much different than the love that is common in human nature, because it is genuine. It is a love that flows through us from the heart of the most Holy God.