36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
The world of love is broad. God made love as the core of the Purpose of Creation. His purpose was to create a world of love in which people love God as His eternal counterparts of love. Love between human beings and God absolutely pertains to everyone, whether they’re married or not.
Love isn’t about achieving only one victory. Victory in love must be continuously achieved. To be victorious, we have to know about love and put it into practice. We have to learn how to love and live a proper life of love.
1 Corinthians 13 teaches us about true love. God sees love as the essence, so anything that is done without love is seen as a tree without fruit.
Love is not limited to just the physical aspects such as embracing, kissing, and having sexual relations. The Bible says that ‘love is patient.’ In particular, it’s about being patient towards God’s Will.
Love does not envy
The Scripture also says that ‘love does not envy.’ Satan is a spirit of envy and jealousy, so when influenced by Satan, you become jealous and envious. There is actually no need to be envious of others because God blesses you according to your deeds. In fact, you should not receive the love that is meant for others, or else it becomes like poison to you. As such, God would not grant that love to you anyway.
You see, the same kind of fertilizer may not be beneficial for all plants. Certain plants may even die if fed the wrong type of fertilizer. The same is true with a given mission or responsibility. If you use your hand instead of your foot to kick a soccer ball, your hand will be injured. In the same way, not all people are fit for the same job nor can they excel in the same tasks. Therefore, there’s no need whatsoever for a person to envy others. When you come to know this, you can defeat Satan and avoid being ensnared by him.
You must not be envious of the love that’s given to others. Because people tend to focus on what other people have—instead of what they have—there are many who fail to develop themselves, and they end up shivering in the cold because they were unprepared for winter.
Travel your own path of love
There’s a path of love that you, yourself, must travel. Just as a car cannot travel like a train on a railroad, you should not try to travel on someone else’s path either. A person should only travel on the tracks of their own love. In this way, you have to learn really well about love. You must achieve the victory of love as an individual.
Do not concern yourself with other people’s love, or you will become envious and jealous. And you will feel as if you’ve lost something that belonged to you. In reality, even if you have received only your portion of love, you still wouldn’t be able to enjoy all of it before you die.
Therefore, achieve the victory of individualized love! To do so, learn about love and be the first to love. Out of your own volition, love God first because God has loved you until now. However, you should love Him with the proper purpose; if your purpose is inappropriate, then it is actually dead love. Therefore, pray that your love will be appropriate before God.
