It is and always has been complete.

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. 

– 1 Corinthians 13:4-11

As I was reading this passage the other day, it hit me differently. I started thinking of the times I’ve said, “I love you,” and meant it sincerely. Did my definition of love measure up to the definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8? How often and quick are we to throw that phrase, “I love you” around? I also asked God why verses nine and ten go from talking about completeness to saying that “love never fails, prophesying and tongues will be stilled and knowledge passes away”. I didn’t understand the correlation so I spent some time in prayer, and in my quiet time, here’s what I got… stay with me 🙂

Love is always complete. Love can not be on and off. Love was complete when Jesus died for us so it can never be “in part”. This also means that we can’t love in part… it can not be, “I loved once before but not anymore.” Why? Because Jesus is the definition of love and He has given us that same complete love.

The only way we “fall out” of love or the reason we feel we don’t love someone anymore is because we never knew or understood love to begin with. Do we know how to love? Sometimes we fight to receive or feel love from the ones we love most because we desire to receive what we feel and what we give. In those moments, I’d challenge us to think about how we are exhibiting love. Is it 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 or have we determined what love is on our own?

God’s love for us is the example of love we should all be following. He has never and will never lose hope in us.

God knows us completely so he loves us completely. Perfect love hath no fear. He wasn’t afraid of betrayal, of enduring pain, of sacrifice even in knowing the imperfect-ness of His own creation. We hurt God, we betray Him, we lie on Him, we turn away from Him… and He is still calling after us, there for us, loving us the same as He did from day one. This is what I mean when I say love is always complete. Because when you know someone, and I mean all of someone, it may get a little tougher to love them. But that’s exactly what God is showing us about love. Love becomes a function of knowing someone. Because you know someone, you love them. The more we know about someone, the more lovable and unlovable things we get to know. We grow into love and we choose to love. And thank God we can’t grow out of love. What those “lost feelings” of love could mean is that something in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 has gone missing… or was it really love to begin with?

Until we come to an understanding of God’s love, we will only be able to love in part. As 1 Corinthians 13:10-11 puts it, “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.” When we come to intimately know God, to have a personal relationship with God, we come into the completeness of love. And when we mature from childhood to adulthood, love looks a lot different.

We can only love to the extent of our understanding, and I pray God guards our hearts and expands our understanding deeply.

With lots of love,

Carin