Trusting love that protects

It’s always protects, always trust.  1 cor. 13:7

Ephesians 5:25-28 -30

‘For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.’

Here , the writer was talking about Christ and the church and using it as an example for marriages.  He advises that husbands should love and nurture their wives as Christ would the church and goes on to say that no man will hate his own flesh and not take care of it.  The church is of the same body as Christ, and so is the wife, her husband.  The husband is supposed to protect his body, how? By cherishing it, taking good care of it, nurturing it and nourishing it.  What does this mean?

What the writer was saying is simple, value you body so much so that you will buy the best products to make sure that your skin looks its best.  Treat it when it gets hurt, don’t leave any wound unattended.  Nurse it back to health.  Your body is your treasure, so what do you  have to do? You nourish it.  You feed it healthy foods and ointments that will not make you sick but will give you good health and vitality.  You exercise that body so it won’t be lazy or hypertensive. You will make sure your body is not plagued with high blood cholesterol, so you will start counting cholesterol just to make sure your body is healthy.  We do all this so at the end of the day when we stand in the mirror and look at ourselves, we will feel proud and say at last, ' I love myself’.

The catch here is the body that writer was talking about is not just your own body but the body of the one you love.  You are supposed to treat him/her as you would want to be treated.  You will want to protect that person.  This is what the bible talks about in 1 cor. 13:7 when it says love protects.

It means love will cherish you, won’t let any harm come to you, will nourish and nurture you so you won’t be a harm to yourself and so you will improve and be the best you can be.  Love protects does not mean that love will control or manipulate you, it does not mean that love will insist on its way, it does not mean that love will dominate you, it means that it will shelter you and not over protect you.  Sheltering means that you will provide protection and safety and not a prison.

Remember what you treasure, you will protect.

Trust and faith go hand in hand, you can’t separate the two. When you have faith in something, your trust follows and vice versa.  We are Christians because we trust that what the bible says is true so we have faith to believe that everything it says will come to pass or has already happened.  Nobody alive today saw the bible happen, none of us saw Jesus die, yet we believe because we trust the words written.

Love holds on even when others give up.  Trust is Daniel refusing to quit praying in the face of death. Even when he was getting thrown in the lion’s den, he still wouldn’t give up because he knew dead or alive, his God is still God.  Most often we see that verse and we think it was a battle to prove God can deliver, but I think not.  That was a battle to prove faith and trust.  Would Daniel trust God even when he faced death? God delivered because Daniel remained faithful.  Trust does not give you a benefit of doubt, doubt does not come in at all. Love will not shake or waver and wonder ‘what if’. It stands on its feet and it says dead or alive, I am convinced and nothing can change the truth I know.

Jesus’ truth was that he will bring the message that men will believe onto salvation; the evidence was that, he was beaten, mocked, crowned with thorns and eventually killed. Yet on the cross, he cried father forgive them for they don’t know what they do.  In the face of death, he did not change his mind, because his truth was simple, he trusted that his message will do its work.  Thank God he trusted! Where would you and I have been otherwise? So let us trust in love, it will give the strength someone precious needs to live.


Written by Aba Dadson
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