What does love mean?

On Sundays Starting Point has been reading through I Corinthians, a letter from Paul near the back of the Bible.  Though just 700 miles across the Mediterranean and only a few decades from Jesus’ life, the letter presents a people who have lost sight of love.

Paul is quite forceful about it.  People are seeking their own advantage, getting drunk while others go hungry, insisting that they have a voice which must be heard and all sorts of assertions of personal freedom.  There is even an account of intimate relations between of a man and his father’s wife.  Paul highlights it all, but only so he can point to a ‘more excellent way’, which is a very particular description of love. 

Love….

… is patient
… is kind
… is not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude
… doesn’t insist on its own way
… is not irritable or resentful
… bears, believes, hopes and endures.

I’ve listened to these words at many weddings, yet Paul here isn’t defining matrimony but the life of those who seek to learn from Jesus and walk his way.  It is a description of love that is indifferent to the condition or the personality of the one who is loved.  It is also unconcerned with the freedom or rights of the one seeking to love.  This love is the selfless and unconditional concern for the welfare of another person.

To love like this is well beyond the power of anything on earth.  It is only possible, then, for those with hearts open to heaven. At Starting Point we are hearing the call to open our hearts and we are praying that we will be filled with love.