Have you ever been tempted to give up on love? To give up on a relationship? To say nope, that’s it, I’ve had enough … and just walk away? I wonder where we’d be, you and I, if Jesus did that to us.

So, over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about Love. L–O–V–E. The one topic that more songs have been written about and crooned over than any other topic. I’m pretty sure that you could think of your top 3, favourite love songs of all times. For me, it’s Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Compares to You, Roberta Flack – The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, and Elvis Presley – Love Me Tender.

There are thousands, I dare say tens of thousands of love songs out there. I wonder which one is your favourite. There is something so beautiful, so wondrous about love isn’t there. To love and to be loved – I just don’t think there is anything that tops that. To have that connection with someone, where when something good happens in your life, you can’t wait to pick up the phone and share that. When something bad happens, you can’t wait to share that with them too.

That deep connection, that bond. That’s what makes the world go round, right? But as many love songs that there are out there, there are also plenty about love lost. James Blunt’s “Goodbye my Lover” I think is one of the most touching ones on the planet. If you haven’t heard it, have a listen. There is a great tragedy when a relationship of great love is broken.

We talked recently on the program/ earlier about the divorce statistics. But behind each statistic, behind each divorce, lies the deep tragedy, the deep hurt of a broken relationship. It’s interesting what Jesus says about the marriage relationship, as He quotes the book of Genesis:

Matthew 19:3–6: Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.

It’s this idea that when a man marries a woman, they become one flesh – they become one unit, in a relationship of love and intimacy that mirrors the relationship between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

And when you tear apart what God has joined together, it is the most incredibly painful thing that anyone can imagine. We’re talking in this series about love – what love is – in fact, that’s the name of the series – Love Is.

Because love is so much more than the romantic crooning of the love songs. Love is so much more than romance and sex, as wonderful and as essential as those things are in a marriage relationship. Love goes so much wider than marriage – to family and yes to friends. You and I can show love to awork colleague, to a neighbour, to a member of our local football club. Love has a place in every relationship.

Yesterday on the program/before the break we took a look at one of the most power packed verses in the Bible. It’s a verse that punches way above it’s weight, way above the very few words that it uses.

1 Cor 13:7: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

It talks about a love that doesn’t give up. A love that bears all things, believes and hopes all things and above all endures all things – as much as that endurance hurts.

At this point, I want to take a look at the three types of love spoken about in the New Testament. There are three Greek words used for love.

The first one is eros from which we get the word erotic. It speaks of physical intimacy and sexual love. The second one is phileo from which we get words like filial. It speaks of the love between friends or siblings. And the third one, is the word Or agape however you’d like to say it. Now, I want to take you to a very clear definition of what this word agape actually means, because that’s the word used here in 1 Cor 13. That’s the sort of love that we’re talking about here.

Agape is selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love, the highest of the three types of love in the Bible. It perfectly describes the love that God has for us, by sending Jesus to the Cross, to pay for our sin so that we can have a new life, a resurrection life, being born again to live with Him for eternity.

Selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love. That’s powerful isn’t it and the very next verse after 1 Cor 13:7 that we just read, seals the deal in terms of what that sort of love means.

1 Cor 13:8: Love never ends.

It is so easy to want to give up on love when the going gets tough. When love stops being a feeling and becomes a tough decision that we have to make every day. It’s easy to love someone when the going is good. They’re nice to us, they respond to us, they treat us the way we want to be treated.

But that’s not the way love is all of the time. Imperfect people – which is pretty much, now … let me see, that would be 100% of the people out there – imperfect people are so hard to love. We so want to give up loving them sometimes. We start by hardening our hearts against them to protect ourselves. Then we sart reliving their faults over and over in our minds – which only hardens our hearts more.

Then we start imagining … no, it’s more than that, dreaming about a life without them. And then, sadly, people just walk away from that love.

But God’s love for us never ends. And that’s the sort of love that He’s calling you and me to. The sort that bears all things, hopes all things, believes all things and endures all things. The sort of love that never, ever, ever ends. No matter what.

I don’t know, but my hunch is that there’s a relationship in your life right now, a relationship that’s supposed to be filled with love, that you want to walk away from. A relationship where you’re fed up, where you’ve had enough, where you’ve lost hope. And it’s right into that situation that I believe the Lord is speaking. Right into that difficult place.

I just believe with all my heart that He’s wanting to write these words onto your heart: love … never … ends.

Don’t give up. How many times have you had to go to God and ask for His forgiveness through what Jesus did for you? Has He ever not forgiven you? Has He ever said to you, nope, that’s it, I’ve had enough of you. You’ve just hurt me one time to many. I don’t think you’re ever going to change. I don’t think I can put up with you anymore. I’ve just had enough of you, I’m out of here.

Has He ever, ever said that to you? No! Every time you turn back to Him, he rejoices like the father of the prodigal son who returned. When the prodigal son came to his senses …

Luke 15:20: … he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.

That’s God’s love for you. That’s what it looks like and it’s that love that His Holy Spirit would pour into your heart. So when the person you love hurts you, offends you, disappoints you … it won’t feel anymore like it’s about you. Instead the love of God for that person will ache in your heart. The same love that God has for you will be the love, the unconditional love, the never ending love with which you will love them.

The love that never ends.

Here at Christianityworks we’ve just published a life application booklet called Love Is. It picks up on some of the teaching in this series and each chapter has a series of life application questions, to help you live out God’s Word in your life.

And you can request your very own FREE copy right now, online at christianityworks.com. You’ll see that free offer right there, in the middle of the home page – you can’t miss it. Just click on the offer, pop in your name and email, and it will be on its way to your inbox in a flash. It really is that easy.

And while you’re there, don’t forget to check out the audio lounge. A treasure trove of teaching resources, arranged by topics that will interest you. You’ll find the Audio Lounge in the Resources section of the site.

But back to that free booklet. It’s called Love Is ... and the web address, is christianityworks.com.

Remember, God loves you with the most amazing love and He is ready, willing and able to pour that love into your heart, in your most difficult and most painful relationships.