Love Never Fails

Vol 2 No 27 THEO'S DEVOS 070908

1 Corinthians 13:8 Love will last forever... TLB

Imagine a love like this. There is only one possible source for a love that never fails and that is God. His love never fails and, in fact,it is the only love the is guaranteed not to fail. Other love may not fail but, most likely, will have at one point or another. This is a good example of something that should be, but, in human experience, may not actually happen. It is on the order of God telling us to be perfect like He is. Something to shoot for but something marred by our sin nature. If we have any chance of loving in such a way as to never fail it is to throw ourselves on the grace of God and pray that we just might be able to pull it off. If the object of our affection is truly someone we love, then the never fail part will have a much better chance of happening. God truly loves us but we, on the other hand, often try to love something we do not.

“Some years ago an illustration was given by Dr. Stephen Olford, who for many years was pastor of the large Calvary Baptist Church in Manhattan. Stephen is an Englishman, raised in the mission field in Africa, the son of missionary parents. One morning he spoke about his early boyhood. His father died when he was in Africa, and his mother took him back to England on a long 'tramp' steamer ride that took almost two weeks to reach London. They had not been out of port more than a few days when one of the seamen injured himself. His wound began to fester and to smell very badly, and the other seamen refused to have him in the cabin with them. They lacked adequate medicines to treat this man, and it looked like he was going to die. He was in great pain, but the other men took him up and dumped him on the deck, exposed him to the weather, and refused to let him come down at all. They passed food to him with a long pole, as no one would touch him.
Stephen Olford's mother was a godly, Christian woman, and, after about a day of this treatment, she took pity on this man and went up to him. No one else would draw near him because the stench was so terrible, but she took a basin of warm water, knelt down beside him, and washed away the pus and all the collected foul excrement of the wound. He cursed her, as he had cursed everybody who had come near him, but she patiently kept on and never said a word. She brought him his food that day, again in the evening, and again washed his wounds and took care of him. This went on for the duration of the voyage. When they arrived in London he was able to hobble off the ship. As you can well imagine, a display of love like that had broken through all this man's bitter defenses. He became a Christian and a lifelong friend of Stephen Olford's mother.”1
Fortunately there exists this kind of love for us. We may not experience it from another human being, but we will experience it from God. He loves us and that love will never fail. He will be there for us no matter what our condition. We cannot sin ourselves away from God. His grace just gets stronger. We can't walk away from God. He holds us securely in His hand. We can't fall away from God. He will not let us go.

To pass that kind of love on to another human being takes supernatural ability that can only come from God. I believe that it is a sign of true love, to just get stronger when the object seems to deserve it less. Don't try to conjure it up. It is there or it isn't. Too many people will fake love tonight. Be honest with God about your life. Let Him love through you. It is the only way that love will not fail. Let Him love you and even a disparate situation can be handled.

If you are experiencing true love from another human being, thank God. You have no idea how rare that is in this life.

Theo

1 Illustration taken from a sermon by Ray Stedman Message No: 29 Catalog No: 3599 Date: January 21, 1979