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August 11
The family is one of the most important and most personal things in the life of any man. Regardless of the level of education, material state, or even the culture, marriage gives man a sense of profound peace, significance, value, and balance. God organized and sustained the family, but it reaches its maximum potential only when it functions according to God’s principles. People are tempted to confuse blessing with pleasure, reason for which they reject the blessing to embrace pleasure.
Love is at the base of marriage and family life. People are tempted to confuse love with sentiments, reason for which they love according only to what they feel. The Bible, in 1 Corinthians 13 presents love as a principle, as a choice.
1. Love is indispensable, “Even if I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). The truth is that no man can do these things and even if they could, it would still be inferior in comparison to love.
2. Love is patient every time it is needed “love is patient” (verse 4).
3. Love is manifested through goodness toward the life partner, “love is kind” (verse 4).
4. Love makes a man modest, “it does not boast, it is not proud” (verse 4).
5. The loving man behaves respectfully and in friendship, with decency, “It does not dishonor others” (verse 5)
6. The man who loves seeks the interest of his life partner, “it is not self-seeking” (verse 5).
7. The person who loves does not behave with aggression, “it is not easily angered” (verse 5).
8. The man who loves will not hold against his partner things for which they’ve sought forgiveness, “it always protects” (verse 7).
9. Whomever loves suffers for the one he loves, “always hopes, always perseveres” (verse 7). Love that imposes itself like a
boss, that provokes suffering without mercy, is not love.
10. In love, transparency is absolutely necessary, “Love must be sincere” (Romans 12:9).
People are tempted to confuse love with pleasure, reason for which they allow themselves transient and guilty relationships. Love is what we seek our entire lives and what we find only when our life partner loves us. All who choose to be married must learn what love means.
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