Today we offer you a fresh look at a familiar passage of scripture as shared from the book, Counsel From The Cross, by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Dennis E. Johnson.  Please take a moment to slowly consider what they are saying – it will strengthen your marriage in a fresh way!

How many times have you heard the “love passage” from 1 Corinthians 13 read at weddings and thought, That’s so beautiful.  I wish I could love like that!…Rather than automatically asking, “What does this passage tell me to do?”  let’s ask, “What do these verses tell me about God’s love for me through Christ?…

God has declared his love for us.  His love makes him patient with us even though we refuse to believe that he is as good as he says he is; he is “slow to anger” (Ps. 86:15).  Love causes him to be kind to “the ungrateful” (Luke 6:35) — to us who once were his enemies and still don’t completely trust his Word.  His love declares his goodness and make him want us for himself, but he isn’t puffed up, arrogant, or demanding (Isa. 42:1-3)  Instead, he comes to us, seated on the lowliest of animals, a donkey’s colt (Zech. 9:9). He continues to love us even when we foolishly insist that our way is best or are irritable or resentful toward him (1 Pet. 2:22-24).  He never repays us in kind but always blesses us with what we don’t deserve (Matt. 5:44-45)

Taking a fresh look at God’s love for us will help us grow more in love with our spouses no matter the difficulty we’re facing.  We love because He first loved us!  Since He doesn’t treat us as we so often deserve – we must ask ourselves, “How am I treating my spouse?  The way their actions deserve or the way Christ has treated me?”