Forever Friday: 1 Corinthians 13

Last week, I started a new feature called Wedding Wednesday (see my first post here). However, we all know that while weddings are super stressful fun, it’s the marriage that truly counts.

I’m by no means a marriage expert, so this in no way, shape, or…anything…should be considered advice. It’s more of a “let’s learn together” feature.

Every time I think of marriage, I hear this in my head from The Princess Bride:

The Impressive Clergyman: Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam… And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva… So tweasure your wuv.

I. love. that. movie. But I digress.

“Tweasure your wuv.” (Just in case you need help translating, that’d be “treasure your love.”)

What does it mean to treasure something? Dictionary.com defines the verb treasure as “to retain carefully or keep in store, as in the mind; to regard or treat as precious; cherish.”

Society has changed the way a lot of people thing about marriage. You’re not happy? Divorce. You’re interested in someone else? Divorce. You’ve grown apart? Divorce. All these boil down to one thing: you don’t feel in love with your spouse anymore. (A quick note here: I do believe there are circumstances in which divorce is the best thing to do, such as abuse, infidelity, etc.  Here are some verses you can look up.) What society forgets, though, is that love isn’t a feeling. Feelings can lie to us. Love is, however, a choice.

We can choose, on a daily basis–sometimes a minute-by-minute basis if it’s that hard–to truly love someone. But how do we do that?

We’ve likely all heard 1 Corinthians 13, the chapter of the Bible that describes tru wuv…a-hem, true love. The nitty-gritty description is verses 4 through 7. But let’s break it down. Love:

• Is patient
• Is kind
• Does not envy
• Does not boast
• Is not arrogant
• Is not rude
• Doesn’t fight to get its own way
• Is not irritable (wow, I need to work on that one)
• Is not resentful
• Does not celebrate when it’s done something wrong
• Adores truth
• Bears all things
• Believes all things
• Hopes all things
• Endures all things

Where you see the words underlined, those are links to Dictionary.com so you can read the definitions (make sure you read the “adjective” or “verb” definition for that word!). Hey, sometimes you gotta do your own research to really learn. 😉

The list seems overwhelming. But Jesus is all these things…and more. And He created marriage, so I’m confident (I believe) that He has given us the capacity to achieve this list in our marriages.

And for you singles out there, use this passage as a measure for anyone you’re dating! Replace “love” with their name. If they don’t fill these things (or at least most of them since we’re all a work in progress), consider ending that relationship. Not because they aren’t worth it, but because you are worth it.

Until next time.