Taking love for granted is too costly a thing to do. Hence, it must be avoided at all cost.
For most of us, a Christian wedding is not complete without a reading from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not proud. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
I was driving when this passage came to mind. My attention was drawn to the statement “love is not easily angered”. It reminds me of the passage about God being slow to anger… – it does not mean that God never gets angry: God is slow to anger, but what happens when he gets angry? (-Read Genesis 5, 19, Isaiah 5). Likewise, love is not easily angered, but what happens when it is angered?
Taking these questions seriously would keep anyone from taking love and God for granted. How does one take love for granted? The answer is in the passage.
Imagine a wife loving her husband but the latter (husband) is the opposite of love, that is, impatient, unkind, envious, boastful, proud, rude, self-seeking, easily angered, keeps record of wrongs, delights in evil, is inconsistent or unpredictable. Anyone in a loving relationship who is the opposite of love is destroying the relationship. Being the opposite of love in relationship is like dripping drops of a deadly poison in food. It kills the relation and renders love powerless to save it.
Please note that only a husband or wife, who takes the love of the other for granted, and a Christian who takes God’s love for granted, would behave so. I pray that you are not such a person in Jesus Christ’s name!
May the Lord help us let his love and our loved ones’ empower us to be loving and protect us from the devastating cost of taking love for granted.
