Some of you might look at the title of this and think that know exactly where I'm going.  You have probably guessed correctly.  With this article, however, I'd like to focus not so much on where it's going but on the stops it makes along the way.

Let me begin by saying that it's easy to oversimplify the life of Jesus.  That doesn't mean to say that we dishonor Him in this oversimplification.  It's just that His giving of Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world was an event of such greatness, such glory, and such significance to each of us, that we sometimes don't take our eyes off of that portion of His life long enough to experience the riches of all of the other things that He did for us.

The truth is that whatever scripture you might find to explain the reasons for the coming of Christ (God in the flesh) one unspoken truth seems to underlie them all.  Christ came not only to provide a way of salvation, but also to show us a "more excellent way" of living Godly lives.  The excellence of that way exhibited itself throughout His life and culminated with its ultimate and most powerful example at the crucifixion of our Lord.

Paul writes a whole chapter (1 Cor 13), which he explains, is about a more excellent way (1 Cor 12: 31).  That was the way of love.  In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus on six occasions starts his teaching with the phrase "you have heard it said..." then continues with "But I say...” Each lesson provided us as well as those present with observances of God's commandments in ways that were more loving than what was being taught by others at the time.  Jesus was teaching a more excellent way. 

Now we should stop and talk about marriage for a moment.  I was saddened to read the most recent available statistics for our country.  In 1998 there were 2.3 million marriages in the United States.  During the same period there were 1.1 million divorces.  Is it any wonder that with this great of a problem in the world, that the problem sometimes finds it's way into the church?  I believe that if we can understand a problem, that we can overcome the same.  The way I see it, our only understanding of the divorce problem is that it is a problem.

The reason that marriages end in divorce is one simple fact.  Love is not there.  "Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.  Love never faileth: (1 Cor 13: 4-8a ASV)  I've taken the liberty highlighting several of these truths about love that seem to contradict the possibility of the breakup of any marriage if love truly existed.  This can be a hard pill to swallow, but if love "endureth all things", and we cannot endure our marriage, then where is the love? 

Now this message isn't simply about marriage, it is just that marriage gives us an example to help us dig deeper into this issue of love.  The reason that so many marriages find themselves without love is that we sometimes have an incomplete understanding of love.  We understand love as a quality that comes from within ourselves.  Yet if we take 1 Corinthians 13 in context with chapters 12 and 14 we see that Paul is speaking about gifts from God.  Sometimes miraculous gifts, and sometimes gifts of ministry but always he is speaking of gifts from God. It is in that context that he speaks of love.

What I'm trying to say is that we have difficulty in seeing that the love that we extend to others is in us because it is a gift from God.  In 1 John chapter 4 a simple statement is made twice "God is love".  Ask yourself today, when is the last time that I asked God for help with my love?  The Bible tells us to "pursue love" (1 Cor 14: 1 NKJV).  Shouldn't our pursuit of love begin with God who is love?  "Love does not envy."  If I'm envious, there's a problem with my love.  Should I not be asking God to help me with my love?

I'm not saying that we have no responsibility for our love, or that obtaining love is not through any effort of our own.  The very statement "pursue love" implies personal effort.  What I am saying is that when we compare our love to what the Bible describes as love, and find our love lacking, shouldn't we start our pursuit by asking God?  Because "my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Php 4: 19)