?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 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.?
This is how love is defined in Chapter 13 of the first letter to the Corinthians, verses 4 until 7 in the New International Version of the Bible.
At first look, you'd be seeing the definition of a perfect and ideal love between persons. It is not very easy to attain, and very difficult to practice and maintain. This is because as humans we are imperfect, and tend to become selfish. Selflessness, after all, is what true love is all about.
When you truly love a person, you are willing to wait for him/her to reciprocate your feelings no matter how long it would take. You are willing to endure the hardships and even make sacrifices for him/her without asking for anything in return.
If you are a guy, you do not pressure the girl you are courting to give you an answer. You do not count the days that pass until you get her ?yes? if you are truly in love with the person. In that sense, you become selfish because you want her to give an answer in your own time and not hers.
Pride is the bane of all relationships. Pride bars both parties from admitting their mistakes, and paving the way for reconciliation in times of conflict. Pride also deepens the conflict, because no one is willing to make the first move to make amends. If your love is true, you are willing to shed your pride and humble yourself for the sake of maintaining your relationship.
Jealousy and envy are signs of selfishness. There are probably some people who are engaged in a relationship that say their lovers truly love them if they get jealous, because they are afraid of losing them. But in a deeper sense, they are actually just selfish and untrusting because they do not give the other party the benefit of the doubt. When you are in love, you are willing to give your other half 100% of your trust and they will also do the same if their love is true.
A person who is truly in love will not easily succumb to gossips about the one he loves. Instead, a person in love will strive to find out the truth about the gossips before he gets angry or confronts the one he loves. In doing so, he is being just and fair to her as he solicits her side first before he makes a reaction.
The bottom line is: love is not selfish. The person who is truly in love thinks not of himself, but instead his mind is focused on the welfare and the sake of the one he loves in everything that he does.
In the book of Mathew it says, Mat 22:37-40 "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets".
When Jesus quoted these two commandments He was not giving a 'new' law to replace the Ten Commandments of God, He was in fact quoting an Old Testament scripture on the importance of keeping the Ten Commandments. Deu 6:5-8 "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: ... And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes".
Jesus was reinforcing the sentiment that the Ten Commandments were a law of love. The first four commandments showed us how to love God, and the last six how to love our fellow man. This is why He said, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets".
Another verse showing the nature of the Ten Commandments is John 15:10 "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love".
Paul wrote Rom 13:8 "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law".
James showed that we should view the law as a law of liberty, like a mirror that shows us our sinful nature. Jam 2:11-12 "For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." He goes on and shows more importantly that we need to seek to follow the law to the best of our ability. He demonstrated that even though we are saved through Grace, it does not mean that we can be disobedient to the law of God. He says we cannot be saved by faith alone - because the result of true faith will be seen in our actions (works), by the life we are leading. Jam 2:13 "For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone". This shows that in New Testament times it is still important to keep the ten rules of love that God laid down for the benefit of mankind.
God's Ten Commandments truly are His ten magnificent rules of love. They show how to love Him and people, but the fourth commandment, the Sabbath, is perhaps the real test of Love. The other nine say what not to do, but the Sabbath tells us what we should do to demonstrate our love and obedience to God. He has told us to devote every seventh day to Him. He instituted this at the beginning of the world, as both a memorial to His creation and a time for man to commune with Him.
Jesus and His disciples all faithfully kept the Sabbath day their entire lives, and Jesus made it clear that there would be no changes to the law, or the day to keep the Sabbath on when He said, Mat 5:18 "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled".
All Bible references are from the King James Version.
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