Lenten Meditation: March 4, 2024
Daily Scripture Passage: 1 Corinthians 7:25-31
Those who marry will experience distress in this life, and I would spare you that. — 1 Corinthians 7:28b
The Everly Brothers recorded “Love Hurts” in 1960, and since then, several artists have produced their own versions.
“Some fools think of happiness
Blissfulness, togetherness
Some fools fool themselves, I guess
They're not foolin' me.
I know it isn't true
Love is just a lie
Made to make you blue
Love hurts.”
Paul, like the Everly Brothers, knew that love hurts, but Paul did not think that love is a lie. Paul foresaw a time of great distress, and he knew that the only thing more painful than going through distress alone is watching people we love go through it. So, Paul advised the Corinthian believers to spare themselves that anguish so they could more easily endure what was about to happen.
That may be good advice for people in a time of crisis, but it is no way to live in normal times. Avoiding love is not a healthy life strategy, especially for Christians. To feel the heart stir as your beloved suffers is heartbreaking, but it is also heart-building. Our spouses, our parents, our children, our friends will all suffer in life, and we will suffer profoundly seeing their pain, and that is proof that we would rather suffer than live only half a life.
In Jesus, God has become one like us, suffering even the pain of seeing the people he loved in pain. To love to the point of pain is to love like God. In his Gospel, John records Jesus saying, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another,” (John 13:34). It may hurt sometimes, but it is how we draw nearer to the Lord in the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The truth, not a lie.