Love never ends.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

1 Corinthians 13:8

Love never ends. There is a comfort in that reality. When there is a God-given love, it will always remain. This triumphs over every other experience, even spiritual experience, in life. Paul argued that the charismatic-obsessed Corinthians needed to take that truth to heart. Their precious charismatic gifts would flame out, overtaken by love. Ecstatic tongues-speaking would cease… dimmed by God, in Christ, in the Body of Christ and His extravagant love. Delivering prophetic messages would end, as scripture took precedent and as one day the gospel story ends with the perfect ending: a gathered people of God in Christ hearing literally from God together in His presence. Gaining spiritual knowledge would change from a personal gift to a loving experience for all believers who will see Christ together face to face. Love truly never ends… it just gathers into a deeper, richer, fuller, eternal glory.

And if we have lived in Christ long enough, loved in Him deep enough, we know that even the loss by death of those we love can never end love. We may be temporarily separated. Yet the love never ends because what God gives is so very good, it is carried in our hearts until we are reunited in eternity. And the blessing of love in Christ is that it will ALWAYS endure and last. The relationships of love in Christ… friends, family, spouses, ministry partners… all those only deepen in eternity for those in Christ. Love will never end.

The reason we know this is because when those relationships are built on the love of God, they stand on a permanent, never-ending foundation. The love of Christ for us, in us, and through us that transforms broken sinners into blood-bought saints will never end. God loves with an everlasting love. We are thrilled by His love now. We will be magnificently thrilled by God’s transformative love for all eternity when the dark glass of this world is lifted and we live in the perfect light of perfect love! I. CAN’T. WAIT!