Characteristics of Love: Love always protects
1 Corinthians 13:7(NIV) It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Introduction: Glory be to God who has kept us to see new month.
🙏 Almighty God will keep us in perfect health as we grow old and strengthen us according to His glorious power unto all wisdom and spiritual understanding in Jesus name.
📎 The 23rd characteristic of God’s kind of Love this week is: Love always protects.
To protect means to prevent from being harmed or damaged.
Another characteristic of God’s kind of Love as written in 1 Corinthians 13:7(NIV) is that Love always protects.
As Christian husbands, we are to love our wives to the extent of defending them against harmful family traditions that are against biblical principles.
There are several family traditions from different tribes that we know or read about which are not biblical. I heard that one tribe use their wives to entertain friends who visits the family. This means if my friend comes to visit me, after taking food and drinks, I will allow him to sleep with my wife also as entertainment. What an evil tradition? If you happen to belong to this tribe and now as a Christian, will you still uphold the tradition that is demeaning to your wife?
Some Christian spouses do not protect their wives/ husbands from harmful traditions that is demeaning to their spouses. Anytime there is occasion for celebrations among relatives, the wife becomes slave and object of ridicule among family members.
The way we carry our spouses is the way others will carry them. If they know you protect your spouse, nobody will disrespect him/her but if you disrespect your spouse before them, then he/she will be disrespected by everyone.
❓The question is, what kind of Love exists between you and your spouse?
God’s kind of Love protects in adversity while worldly or valentine’s love exposes to danger in adversity.
Ephesians 5:25 (MSG) Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church–a love marked by giving, not getting.
As Christians with God’s kind of Love, we are to go all out in protecting our spouses.
Jacob suffered additional seven years for the woman he loved without feeling hurt.
Genesis 29:20 (NLT) So Jacob spent the next seven years working to pay for Rachel. But his love for her was so strong that it seemed to him but a few days.
No sacrifice for loved spouse is too much because love is always strong.
Song of Solomon 8:6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death;
The love that the three Hebrew men had for God made them to face fiery fire of king Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel 3:14-18 (NLT) Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you refuse to serve my gods or to worship the gold statue I have set up? I will give you one more chance to bow down and worship the statue I have made when you hear the sound of the musical instruments. But if you refuse, you will be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace. And then what god will be able to rescue you from my power?” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”
God’s kind of Love will be ready to tackle oppositions against whom we love. One thing I have discovered is that if you love God sincerely, you will love your spouse unconditionally. This is what keeps marriage blissful and intact despite enemy’s attack in Christian marriage.
Anyone that loves God will never leave God’s presence no matter what he/she is going through.
Hear brother Job during his travails;
Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
Offences from our spouses should not change our ways or love that we proclaimed in courtship. We should maintain God’s kind of Love as Christian couples.
🛑 There will never be a “fight to finish” among couples with God’s kind of Love because love covers all sins. Whereas, worldly or valentine’s love ends in crisis that finishes marriage due to constant strifes originated from hatred.
Proverbs 10:12 (NLT) Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love covers all offenses.
❓What practical steps are we to take as we walk in love this week?
Remove anything that is hindering your relationship, any addiction or influence that’s stealing your affections and turning your heart away from your spouse.
✍ Finally brethren, God’s kind of Love makes us to prevent our spouses from hurts by bearing one another’s burden in marital journey. God’s love binds us together to put thousands of enemies to flight. Once the enemy sees couples are not together or united, he takes over rulership the home.
Romans 15:1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
✋ Maranatha.
