Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. (Song of Songs 8:6, NIV)
“Do you love golf more than your wife’s cooking?” I’ll leave it up to your friends to put you on the spot with this question, but you can probably rest assured you won’t have to tackle it in front of a TV audience as Ben Crane once did. While attached to a polygraph machine. His attempts to say no didn’t pass.
Crane’s scenario was actually a funny bit for a commercial spot, but it draws us all in. What do we love? And do we love this one thing over that one?
Years ago, when I was working among teenagers, I would sometimes ask them to list the top 10 things in their life in order of importance. It’s something of an impossible task, because it can be hard to measure the relative value of things, especially if we’re mixing tangibles and intangibles. But here is what I found common: God fell somewhere in the sixth to tenth spots. For a long time this bothered me. If you come from a faith tradition that tells you God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving, how could he occupy any place other than first? But remember, the question was about importance. And what is most important to us are the things that we love. These kids esteemed God, but they didn’t love him more than their family or friends or aspirations, say.
For eight weeks, we have been studying the traits that Peter wrote should be added the faith we possess. So far we have looked at faith itself, then goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, and kindness. How fitting that we should end on love, for as Paul told the Corinthians, “the greatest of these (faith, hope, and love) is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
But love must be put into practice to hold any meaning beyond words. This starts with the question of whom shall we love? Every Links Player should know the answer, as it rests in the L of the Links Player’s Mission: Love God and others. Here is the Jesus creed, the two great commandments for his disciples.
And then, how do we love? We love, you might note from our passage today, strongly. We are jealous on behalf our own affections, not wanting them to be torn away in their aim for God himself or from those he has given us to love. As Jacob held fast for his blessing, we hold fast in love to bless others.
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Jeff Hopper
March 9, 2018
Copyright 2018 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
OTHER DEVOTIONS IN THE EIGHT GREAT TRAITS SERIES
Eight Great Traits 1: Faith
Eight Great Traits 2: Goodness
Eight Great Traits 3: Knowledge
Eight Great Traits 4: Self-Control
Eight Great Traits 5: Perseverance
Eight Great Traits 6: Godliness
Eight Great Traits 7: Kindness