Loving fully: Part 1

Some say that love is weak...That we must not focus only on the love of God lest it result in leniency towards and trivialization of sin.  I say that we grossly misunderstand what love is.  Love is not weak.  Love is not lenient.  Love does not trivialize.  Love is stronger than death.  Love is jealousy more demanding than the grave.  Many waters cannot quench it, death cannot defy it, sin cannot stand it.  To be loved by God is to be claimed completely by Him.  There is nothing weak about love.

So perhaps the reason why we resist love is not merely because we misunderstand it, but also because we are afraid of it.  

We are afraid to receive the love that will claim us completely.  

We are afraid to give a love that will require a surrendering of self entirely.  

We are afraid.  

But we are commanded.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”  (1 Cor. 13:1-3)

What is keeping you from loving fully?