Growing in Love
And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: (1 Thessalonians 3:12 KJV)
Wow, this may not come as a shock to you, but this was an epiphany to me. It’s the ability to be unconditionally in love with someone and still grow in love. I found that out today.
As I was speaking to a person that I am so unconditionally in love with, I said something that I immediately felt stupid for. Soon thereafter I began to cry, and I wondered why. Because my eyes don’t produce enough tears, and my callousness to pain and problems, it take a lot to make me cry. Yet here I was, tearing up because I feared that I offended her. Would I have reacted like this a month ago? No. I may have felt a little conscious, remorseful even, but crying?
Crying indicated to me that the more I loved her, the more it hurt for me to (or at least think that I) hurt her. Then the fact that there has been a deepening of the hurt of hurting (or thinking I hurt) her, said that I was growing more in love with her. Now, if I already love her unconditionally, then is it possible to continue to grow in that love?
That answer is yes. Thessalonians teaches us to increase and abound in love. To to grow is to increase, usually in amplitude, magnitude, size, weight, volume or worth. To abound is to to occur or exist in great quantities or numbers, to be well supplied. So we have to grow and be well supplied in love.
Growth is a continual process. To grow requires something to be added to the object. Plants grow when they intake water. People grow when they eat. Balloons grow in size when filled with a substance, be it water, air, sand, etc.
So what causes love to grow? It is the increase of the things that combine to form it. Patience, kindness, trust, humility, politeness, unselfish, good-naturedness, hatred of evil, love of truth, protectiveness, hope, perseverance, and triumph against that which seeks to destroy it. (I Corinthians 13:4-8) How do you increase in love, simple, you abound in it.
To abound in love, is even simpler, it is the second greatest commandment. “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:39) When you feel or do these things, and try to put them into practice daily, then you will grow in love. to illustrate the second commandment, Jesus told this story:
Jesus answered, “There was once a man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when robbers attacked him, stripped him, and beat him up, leaving him half dead. It so happened that a priest was going down that road; but when he saw the man, he walked on by on the other side. In the same way a Levite also came there, went over and looked at the man, and then walked on by on the other side. But a Samaritan who was traveling that way came upon the man, and when he saw him, his heart was filled with pity. He went over to him, poured oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them; then he put the man on his own animal and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Take care of him,’ he told the innkeeper, ‘and when I come back this way, I will pay you whatever else you spend on him.’ ” (Luke 10:30-35, Good News Bible)
The Preacher, and the deacon, both shunned him this helpless man. but the man who trumped racial, prejudices, fear and a host of other obstacles took his own money, and went out of his way to save this man. This man went above the call of duty. He could have left him there. He could have called the Jericho Police Department or the Israeli Highway Patrol. But he did his best to show patience in going out of his way happily. Kindness in showing compassion to the man. Trust in taking this man from a people known to despise him. Humility, by tending to his wounds. Politeness by taking this man to an inn. Unselfishness by paying for his room and his care out of his own pocket. Good-naturedness by stopping by when even the religious wouldn’t. Hatred of evil by not leaving him there. Love of justice by showing compassion that the preachers and deacons didn’t. Protectiveness by putting him up in the inn. Hope by promising to return. perseverance by continuing on his journey and then coming back. And finally triumph against that which seeks to destroy it by being compassionate to his enemy.
When we strive to show these traits and qualities to people, each and everyday, then our love continues to grow. And as we show these qualities to each other, we will not just grow in love, buut wee will become closer to God, for quite simply, “God is Love”
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John 4:7-8 KJVR)
We think too much a like. Yes. You must grow in love — it is the only true definition of intimacy.