A Thousand Times for You

In my own little way, I had been trying to reflect on the love of Christ with the verse from John 13:34-35 “Love one another as I had loved you”. So many things had been said about love, but did we really try to fathom the depths of Christ love, the height and breathe of His faithfulness?

The Name of Love

Love is not just the character of God, nor is it just the nature of Him. Love is the name of God Himself. He loves us first, not the other way around. His love does not depend on us loving back, because He is love. The beauty is that God has gifted us with the will, so that we could freely choose to love Him back. So our love then, is not a coerced love, or love just based on obedience or fear, but out of our own free will flowing from our heart.

Loving Beyond

The problem we have is that we confused love with mere feelings. Sometimes our understanding of love is a love that does not get angry. We say it is love when there is no anger. We usually say, "May sasabihin ako ha, pero huwag kang magalit. (I have something to say but please don’t get mad at me.)" We say this because we don't want to hurt someone. But the opposite of love is not hate or anger, but indifference. The truth is, if we love, we will get hurt. The person that we love the most is the person that would hurt us the most. Kapag wala kanang pakialam, hindi kana nasasaktan (If you don’t care, you won’t get hurt anymore).

The two kinds of love:

1.  Romantic love – This is when we see what is beautiful of the beloved. Conversations such us, "Anak, huwag yan, ni hindi yan nagsisimba (Son, please not her, she’s not even a mass goer)." And the son replies, "Okay lang po Nay, maganda naman (It’s okay Mom, anyway she’s beautiful)." Or take this another example, "Bestfriend, ang panget naman ng buhok niya. (Bestfriend, he has a very horrible hair)." And the reply is, "Okay lang, magaling naman mag gitara. (It’s okay he is good at playing guitar anyway)."

2.  Mature love – This is when we see beyond what is beautiful of the beloved. When someone asks, "Pag nagalit ako, maiintindihan mo ba na mahal pa rin kita? (If I get angry, will you still understand that I still love you?) Mature love replies, "I know and my eyes are open that you have these weaknesses and I love you nevertheless."

So our love then should go beyond feelings and emotions. It must rise above what the eyes can see but what the heart can see. So when we relate to God in love, we will love Him not because He will get angry if we don’t, or we are afraid of punishment, because if that is so, then it is not mature love but love that is still in the level of feelings and emotions. We love God because we firmly believe that He loves us so much that He died for us.

A Thousand Times

When we look at the cross, we can always hear the voice that says, “I will do this a thousand times for you.” 1 Corinthians 13 affirms that His love bears all things, believes all things, endures all things and hopes all things. So confronted with human weaknesses and frailties we can always look at the other  and say yes, if He can do it, I can do it too. 

A reflection during the making of the 2008 YFC ILC, edited and added some present notes.

by aats