What is Love? - It Sees God At Work

In 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul says that there is only one stat that ultimately matters in your walk with God - one thing that that truly tells the world who you are, and that is your love (or lack thereof). The real question is, how do I grow in love? What does love look like? What does love do, and what does it not do? What is love?

11. Love Sees God At Work

We’ve all seen people at their worst. We’ve all watched folks unravel on a bad day or snap at someone when they’re over the edge. Everyone loses their cool form time to time and the hard thing about being in a relationship with someone is that you have to watch this happen repeatedly. You see, when you really know someone, you see them when they don’t really want to be seen. The closer you are to a person, the more mess you have to see.

This is basically where the rubber meets the road when it comes to love - that is to say, how do you love people when they are hard to love? How do you love someone when they are at their worst?

In verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says that love “always trusts.” What does that mean? Why is love about trusting? Well, that word “trust” is the same Greek word that is translated “believe” in some places and “faith” in others. In other words, when you love someone, you believe stuff about them. You have faith about them. The real question is, what do you believe about them? What faith do you have?

You know, when you’re at your worst, you probably don’t give up on yourself. When you lose your temper or yell at someone or fall into some sin, you probably cut yourself some slack because you know that God lives in you and that He’s at work in your life. You know that Jesus died for you and that He’s not going to stop working in your life until you’re all finished and complete. That is your faith. That right there is what you believe about yourself because of what God has done in your life. You trust that God loves you, is at work in you and isn’t finished with you yet.

That same trust and faith and belief is what love gives everyone else. In other words, Love believes God is at work in that person who is so hard to love. Love has faith that God hasn’t finished with that person that drives you crazy. Love trusts that God will bring them to completion.

Every week I go to the local jail with two of my best friends to reach out to the guys behind bars with the love of Jesus. Recently we have found out that we aren’t the only church group that goes to that jail to do ministry. Thing is, some of the other groups go in there and tell guys how bad they are. They tell the guys that God hates their sin and that if they don’t turn things around, they are going to wind up in hell. You and I both know that this is not the way to do jail ministry. Those guys know they’ve been a mess already. They’re in there paying for their messes. They don’t need yet another person telling them they suck, so when we go in to do our ministry, we take a totally different approach: We tell guys how much God loves them. We tell them that God has a plan for them and wants a life for them that is sweet, filled with joy and totally fulfilling. We tell them that we respect them and we are encouraged by their walk with God and that we believe God is at work in their hearts, making them something new. In short, we love them.

Last week, as we got up leave the jail, one of the guys shook my hand, pulled me into a hug and then said, “I love you, brother. Thank you for coming to see us.” That dude is on fire for the Lord. He’s changing. He’s growing in Christ. In other words, when you decide to look at a person and always trust, you see God at work in them - and that’s because He really is at work.