The truth about Love



We shall be exploring the Book of 1 Corinthians 13
1 Corinthians 13:3 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Wow! This is amazingly wonderful or should I say unveiling and disturbing. Because it is rather disheartening, disappointing and distorting that people actually perform acts of kindness without love.  Is it possible to give all I have to the poor without love? Is it possible to give myself to the stake and die as a martyr without love? Yes! Yes, it is. That is why am speechless or rather finding it distorting and disheartening. In as much as love is proved by our actions, it is not every action of love that is actually love. Wow! So, some people can do lots of good things for selfish reasons, they can even take bullet for you but they don't love you. Maybe they will do that for you to consider them as your saviour, who knows? Or they want your loyalty at all cost, maybe they want to be praised of men. So many reasons but it's rather unfortunate for anyone to carry out acts of love without loving in the actual sense of love.


Verse 4 says; Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head,

Wow! Love never gives up. No wonder God never gives up on us, no matter how many times we fall, He is always there to pick us up if we let Him.
If I love someone who is yet to mature in God's love, I won't let go until he/she comes around, if am trying to help someone who wouldn't even try to help him/herself, I won't let go till he/she comes around.
If I love someone, I will be patient with him/her, kind to him/her. Love is not limited to time and space.

Verse 5 says; Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,

Wow! See this: Love doesn't force relationship on others. Obsession is not love, it's from the pit of hell. Anybody that will go to any length to force him/herself on someone is  not walking in true love. 
Love is not selfish, is not always about me first. Some people are like me this, me that, me, my, mine, always about them.
Love doesn't keep score of other people's sin. Some people are very good at snapping at any little thing you do but love is not easily provoked as it doesn't keep score of people's sin.

Love doesn't revel when others grovel.
To revel is to make merry.  An instance of merrymaking; a celebration. While to grovel is to crawl, to abase oneself before another person. To be prone to the ground. Love does not rejoice when people go through challenging times. Love does not celebrate because people are cast down.

In fact, let's look at the whole passage of 1 Corinthians 13 from Message Translation. This chapter of the Bible is actually considered the turning point of the whole letter to the Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 13
:1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
:2 If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing.
:3 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
:4 Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head,
:5 Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
:6 Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
:7 Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.
:8 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit.
:9 We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete.
:10 But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
:11 When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
:12 We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
:13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
There are actually 8 types of love according to the ancient Greeks and they are:
First, we have Agape 
which is Unconditional Love
Eros which is Romanic Love.
Philia which is Affectionate Love.
Philautia which is Self-love.
Storge which is Familiar Love.
Pragma which is Enduring Love.
Ludus which is Playful Love.
Mania which is Obsessive Love.
The love expressed in this chapter is none other than Agape Love which is unconditional love.

My question; verse 4 says that love never gives up.
If love never gives up,  then should I disagree with Let it Go by T.D Jakes to an extent? Because he said if you are trying to help someone who wouldn't even try to help himself, let it go. So, how do we blend this? Is letting go same as giving up because love never gives up. Please, I really need our contributions here. Your opinions matters, don't just read without contributing please.
Thank you!


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