“…rescue us because of your unfailing love.”
The definition of “unfailing” is, “without error or fault.” When you get right down to it, it is love that defines our world. Love moves us in all kinds of ways. Love has driven countries to war and has also moved them to peace. Love is the reason shelters for the homeless exist, as well as rehab centers, because behind all of it we find love.
What if someone defined your love as without error or fault? The truth is that however pure our love is and however much it is moved by passion, the Bible has another definition of love in John 15:13, and it was given by God Himself in the form of Jesus, “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Yes, the pinnacle of love is defined here, a very lofty high bar to fill for the common Christian or human.
We do find people who have lived this verse out in wartime or through tragic accidents. For the most part, we find ourselves deciding on our level of love as we move through our daily lives. I often hear love defined by sacrifice, sacrifice of time, money, or goals. If we only define love by sacrifice, then we are missing the definition.
We can be motivated to sacrifice and call it love, but it falls short. In 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, you cannot find “sacrifice” describing love. God’s love is unfailing, without error or fault. This Christmas season many will give gifts and visit family. They will all celebrate in traditional ways by singing Christmas carols and setting out cookies for Santa Claus, and maybe even an elf on the shelf, if you can get past the creepiness of them.
John 3:16 tells us that God gave His only Son so we would not perish but have eternal life with Him. The last verse in the love chapter says, “And now these things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Sacrifice is a good thing, but we cannot use it to define love. Giving is not sacrificing your money to give a gift, but rather giving a gift should be motivated by love, not obligation. If we are not careful, our love can look and feel like obligation and sacrifice. Check your obligations and sacrifices at the door this Christmas and enter in with love. If you need a refresher course on love, just read the love chapter. After faith and hope, we should be grounded by love, unfailing, without error or fault.
Prayer: Lord, help us to show unfailing love to everyone we meet and to see them as You see them. I pray that we are not blinded by our own sacrifices or obligations, but that we see people as You see them. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Let It Go 
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