Today I’m going to focus on the final chunk of verse 7: “always perseveres.” True, genuine love lasts through the ups and the downs, the mountains, valleys, and plateaus. No matter how difficult the situation may be, no matter how strained the relationship may become, love perseveres. 

 

In my opinion, this is another way of saying that love is unconditional. 

 

God wants us to love consistently. Loving in the easy times is, well, easy. But that’s the whole purpose of this verse: to challenge us to love in the hard times. God’s love for us is unconditional, as proclaimed in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even in the valley, when we were still sinners, God loved us deeply. 

 

Are we called to emulate the love of the Lord? Yes! Does that mean it’s easy to do? Absolutely not. It’s not easy to love someone when they’re mean or rude or selfish, but we must persevere and do so anyway. This isn’t merely me telling you to love people that are difficult—they’re direct words from the Bible!

 

“You have heard people say, “Love your neighbors and hate your enemies.” But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you. Then you will be acting like your Father in heaven. He makes the sunrise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong. If you love only those people who love you, will God reward you for that? Even tax collectors love their friends. If you greet only your friends, what’s so great about that? Don’t even unbelievers do that? But you must always act like your Father in heaven.” - Matthew 5:43-48. 

God wants us to persevere in loving both our enemies and friends, just as he persevered and constantly loved us. It isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. After all, because God gave His son for us (which is not easy at all!), we can be with Him for eternity (which was worth it, in God’s eyes). Imagine what we can do for the people around us if we persevered in love like God did!