“But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.”
Colossians 3:14 NKJV
We have spent time with a list of things God wants us to put on, the way He wants us to conduct ourselves as believers, as people who are chosen and beloved by Him. And for the past one week, I have been talking about each of those things one after the other. But the Bible says, yes, put on all those things, but above everything else, put on love. Let love be the topping of it.
When I read that, this is what I picture in my mind. Love is like the actual outfit you wear on top, the one everybody sees. Patience may be there, but patience can be like an undergarment. Patience can be like the corset. Kindness can be like the singlet or the boxers and all those things underneath. But love is what covers everything. Love is what sits on top of everything else.
In fact, if you think about it well, all the other things we have been talking about are also qualities of love. So it makes sense that after listing them, the Bible now says, above all, put on love.
And I find it fitting that we are talking about this around Valentine’s week. Because many people know love in the context of romance and relationships. But in practice, what does it mean when God says, “Love”? What does it look like in the way I live, the way I talk, the way I respond, the way I treat people?
So today, I am going to leave you with 1 Corinthians 13. I suggest you read it slowly, meditate upon it and take it personal.
This is love
1 Corinthians 13:1–13 (NKJV)
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Spend time today meditating on this scripture. Look over every line. Look over every word. And as you read it, turn it into a confession. Turn it into a declaration over yourself. Not just “love is this,” but “this is how I will be.”
God bless you.
Shalom.
