Do we really know what love is?

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.
1 Corinthians 13:4-5

WOW! What a contrast of today's world! Think about it. What is normal in this world? Aren't we always inpatient? We want everything fast, we want the convenience of not having to wait. I was thinking today about Google and the Internet... before those two things existed and we needed information, we had to go to the library! That required a great amount of patience for sure! Now, if we can't find the info in seconds, we surely get inpatient!

The greekbible.com has some interesting words relating to the original term used here for "patience": μακροθυμέω,verb \{mak-roth-oo-meh'-o}
1) to be of a long spirit, not to lose heart 1a) to persevere patiently and bravely in enduring misfortunes and troubles 1b) to be patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others 1b1) to be mild and slow in avenging 1b2) to be longsuffering, slow to anger, slow to punish.

Kindness? There is example after example of how we can be so unkind to each other every day. Even people who are "religious" can be some of the most unkind people in this world. Intolerant of what some people choose to do, rather than approach those people with kindness and love, they spout vitriol from their mouths.

Envy? Our whole society is constantly bombarded with marketing messages that are designed to evoke envy in our hearts that leads us to buy something just because the Joneses have it. While we all acknowledge that outright envy is bad, we indulge in it every day.

Again, here are some sobering words on the original word meaning for "envy": ζηλόω,verb \{dzay-lo'-o}
1) to burn with zeal 1a) to be heated or to boil with envy, hatred, anger 1a1) in a good sense, to be zealous in the pursuit of good 1b) to desire earnestly, pursue 1b1) to desire one earnestly, to strive after, busy one's self about him 1b2) to exert one's self for one (that he may not be torn from me) 1b3) to be the object of the zeal of others, to be zealously sought after 1c) to envy (greekbible.com)

Boast? Love does not boast... yet it is one of our favorite things to do. We look at what we have done, what we have, what others don't have and we boast about it, it's the American way. Yet, the word says that love does not boast. Meaning that if we act in love, we would never boast, we would never gain joy at the expense of another.

Love is not proud? Yet we thrive on pride every day. Pride is the other side of the coin from envy. We are proud when people envy us, it's part of the American dream, to work hard so you can own stuff and be proud.

Notice how all these things that love is not are connected. Imagine someone walking into a room and immediately you see that person impatiently working through the crowd, boasting and pridefully speaking, what would be your first impression? Probably that they are rude and self seeking. And in this verse it says love is never those thins so your first impression might also be that this person has no love.

Ever know someone who has no love? They are usually easily angered and you hate to speak to them about any issue because you are afraid of the "blow up". They will spare no time to point out the flaws of others and flash into explosive diatribes but never stop to account for their own flaws or wrong doings. Sadly, that's more common that needs to be.

In the end, if we were to really understand LOVE, our lives would be way different. But in a society that "loves" everything, I love coke, I love Chevy, I love this and I love that, we have become desensitized to the word "love" and have lost the true meaning of it.

In Spanish there are different words for love. For example, you would never say "Yo amo Coca Cola" - You would say "Me gusta la Coca Cola" or "I like Coke". You use the word "amor" only when it relates to God and family. "Yo amo a Dios", I love God, "Yo te amo", I love you. I don't "amo" my friends, I "quiero" my friends. It's the same thing with the Greek words for love where you have "agape" God's absolute unconditional love, "phileo", brotherly love and "eros", a sensual impulsive love.

As pointed out above, the verse uses "agape" for love. So when we seek for the meaning of true love, when we ask ourselves, "do we really know what love is?" we should refer to God's unconditional love. Because if we believe that God is in us, then his agape love resides in us and we can simply pray to God that he loves others through us, even when we fail to love ourselves.