It’s too easy to get caught up in what the world says that love is. The feelings, the fantasy, the happily ever after and everything the movies promise love gives. But those aren’t real. 

Love is a decision and an action, and the perfect model God lays out over and over in the Scriptures. Love is sacrificing for someone else the way Jesus took our punishment for sin. Love is having patience the way God watched Israel’s cycle of sin and restoration. Love is showing someone that despite their imperfections, they are worth more because God says they are. 

Christians are called to love like Christ models. Jesus says He goes after the one; He’ll do whatever it takes to love us. God doesn’t abandon us because it got hard. God doesn’t hash us out because we aren’t perfect. God doesn’t use our failures as an excuse to go somewhere else. 

“Love is patience, 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.” -1 Corinthians 13:4-7

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” -John 13:34-35