How gracious and great is love that it provides both a unique signature on the individual soul of man, and yet also a uniform opportunity to the entire brotherhood of humanity!

     Love is, without question, the supreme endeavour of life. And when love is lived out in the fullness of its most noble and richest expression, it is also life’s greatest reward too. For love is simultaneously both something to give AND something to receive, making it completely unique in its expression and accomplishment. Most other things are at any point in time, either one or the other. Love, however, is BOTH - simultaneously - making it astonishingly different.

     When it comes to dualities, love is also both "personal" and "universal". By insistence, love is that thing which defines us, both personally and universally, most profoundly. Out of all the many things that would stake a claim on shaping who we are, and what we do, and how we finish the race, love holds the greatest power to leverage the very best in us "personally", as well as the best for us all "universally".

     Love is fundamentally “relational”. It cannot exist in isolation. It cannot exist in any other form than as “relationship”. We relate best to others when we relate in love. By extension then, since love is the supreme "endeavour of LIFE", if love is best expressed as relationship, then relationship is the supreme "endeavour of LOVE". Right relationship, being the expression and accomplishment of "love is as love does", is thus the pinnacle accomplishment of life.

     However, life is a constant confrontation and collision of choices – about either responding to that which calls us upwards and higher, or about surrendering to that which would have us sink to our very basest of natures. Having said that, it is most certain that, when choosing love at each of life’s inflection points, life reaches to that golden horizon which would define us at our very best.

     In our hearts, and in our lives, however, we are daily at constant war with that which would distract us from reaching for the supreme heights and reward of love and life. Both personal experience, and simple observation, show an incessant tug of war between two natures that forever vie for ultimate supremacy. The fallen nature versus the risen one. By stark contrast, the fallen nature draws us towards a constant state of decay and chaos - being the accumulation of all those choices that would ultimately “subtract” from our lives, by subtracting from its best expression and accomplishment of love and relationship.

     On the other hand, when it comes to choosing love as the signature and banner of our lives, it is in the wisdom of this distinctive choice that relationships and life itself, both ultimately and invariably demonstrate their best. The sadness of betrayal, hurt and rejection are just some of those things that tend to have us doubt and question our very foundational beliefs in love. They would rather have us completely halt our quest to realise the best in us. And they achieve this best when they hold us back from relationship. They accomplish this best when they produce an outright unbelief in the office of love itself.

     Love is all about relationship. And for both love and relationship, we need wisdom above all else. Wisdom is what shapes the best relationships and the best love. By extension, wisdom for the sake of wisdom is useless. Wisdom is not an end unto itself. It is only when wisdom is relational that it has value. God is all about relationship. God is all about love. And God is wisest of all because God is best at relationship and best at love. This is why the two greatest commandments are about love AND RELATIONSHIP. Both require wisdom. Which is why the Bible says wisdom is the chief thing, the principle thing, because the best relationships and love collide and converge at the intersection of wisdom.

     Realising the best in ourselves, and the best in others, is, without parallel, the greatest endeavour and lesson that life presents. Love is that key that unlocks the best in all of us. At the same time, life teaches many things. And everything else that life teaches, either becomes a roadblock or an obstacle along the journey of learning the greatest lesson life offers, or it serves to unlock the many gates that incrementally set us free to discover and find fullness of love - both in ourselves and in each other.

     Claiming the great prize of learning to be loved, and to love in return, is only possible, however, when the twin theatres of endeavour - of both leaning continuously upwards to love, and simultaneously declaring outright war on all that would distract and oppose the wellspring and inheritance of love, (both to receive and to give) – are jointly and consistently pursued and applied. And both these endeavours and pursuits depend exclusively on wisdom.

     That we have to endeavour to reach the ultimate prize that love is, it is for this reason that not only is love the supreme effort of life, but it is also the sweetest tasting reward tendered to the palate of man's soul. Nothing we get without any effort yields quite as much satisfaction and reward as that which we have to strive earnestly for. Since love requires the greatest effort of all, it stands to reason that love is, also, the most fulfilling of all our endeavours and pursuits.

     The other major point is that learning this lesson is something that a "coming together of two hearts" produces. We teach one another our greatest lessons. It is a situation of learning to shave on one another's face the spectacular dance of love. Since love is uniquely both that which we receive and that which we give, it cannot, however, be learned in isolation, or alone. By design, it speaks to more than one. It speaks of "relationship". Love is relational. For God is relational. And, as with our relationship with God, love is the "fruit of two" united in the embrace of the greatest adventure and reward charted for the human heart.

     And when the Bible speaks of "love conquering all", it is only the "love of two", both the giving and receiving, both being single-mindedly committed to that endeavour, that relationship, wisdom and life then find and live that victory. The permutations of how the lesson of love is learned are as unique, and varied, and as multiplied, as is each person, and their own lives and situations. In that context, isn't it simply amazing just how great love is?! Love is sufficient to teach us all, in as many personal and unique ways as there are people, the promises it holds. How gracious and great is love that it provides both a unique signature on the individual soul of man, and yet also a uniform opportunity to the entire brotherhood of humanity!

     Love is both a noun and a verb. It is, therefore, both a being, and a doing. Without both, love falters, flickers and fades, becoming a distant intention at best, and at worst, an escape artist resolute at remaining forever inconspicuous. Love is the desire to partake in the beautiful purpose of learning what is to be loved and what it is to love. Love is the "calling" and the "answer" to life’s greatest questions. Love is that which promises not only emotional order, significance and meaning, opposing the many forces of chaos and decay that would wage war on our daily existence, but it rehabilitates and restores the essence and purpose of our lives and souls.

     It is said that when a "defining moment" comes, one should define the moment, or the moment will define you. Love’s first choice is always the former. Love is, also, the one thing that changes the direction and tenor of everything that would otherwise define us. Our lives are all, individually and collectively, a defining moment, a living testament. We can either define our lives in love, or allow that which falls short of the magnificence and heights of love, to define it for us. But at all times, and more so, bear in mind, that God Himself, the highest authority on love, states that without love, we are nothing. What a definitive statement! What a sovereign exclamation of wisdom! In other words, all else that would define us, therefore, is both counterfeit and a subtraction.

     Love is not only the greatest lesson we can and will ever learn, and the greatest gift you can give back to the other half who completes the equation of life - that person who teaches us to be loved in turn, whether in romantic love, spiritual love, brotherly love, or parent-child love - but LOVE is the ONLY real lesson we will ever need to learn. And forget not that: LOVE IS AS LOVE DOES!

"Herein is our love made perfect...

We love him, because he first loved us."

–     1 John 4:17-19 –

May the love of the LORD be your daily garments, and lifelong inheritance, being His crowing glory expressed, accomplished, and fulfilled by Him through you, and in you. "For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen." - Romans 11:36

"The greatest of these is love."

- 1 Corinthians 13:13

"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."

- 1 John 3:18

-       -- To God be all the glory. Forever and ever. Amen and amen.

-       -- Blessings, Wayne Biehn