Love Wears Work Boots

1 Corinthians 13 gets read at a lot of weddings. Candles, flowers, a nervous groom. It is a beautiful chapter for a wedding. But Paul did not write it for a wedding. He wrote it to a church that was fighting. Proud people, jealous people, people keeping score about who had the better spiritual gifts. Into that mess Paul says, let me tell you what love actually looks like.

And notice how he describes it. He never says love feels warm. He says, “Love is patient, love is kind.” Then a string of things love refuses to do. “It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.” Love in this chapter wears work boots. It shows up in the kitchen, at the office, in the car line, in the hospital waiting room at two in the morning.

Try something. Read those verses again and put your own name where the word love is. Mike is patient. Mike is kind. Mike does not keep an account of wrongs. If you are like me, you will not get very far before you start squirming. That is the point. This list is not a compliment. It is a mirror, and none of us looks good in it.

Now read it one more time and put Jesus there. Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind. Jesus is not self-seeking. Jesus bears all things. Every line fits. He was patient with slow disciples. He was kind to lepers and tax collectors. He did not keep a record of Peter’s denials but met him on a beach with breakfast. And He bore all things, all the way to the cross, where He carried the full weight of our sin. Romans tells us, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

That is why love is the first fruit of the Spirit. It is not something we squeeze out of ourselves. Paul says in Romans that “God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” The love of 1 Corinthians 13 begins as something we receive. John says it simply: “We love because He first loved us.”

So what does that look like on a Tuesday? It looks like not checking your phone while your wife is telling you about her day. It looks like letting the coworker who took credit for your idea have a quiet morning without a sharp comment. It looks like refusing to replay old hurts at three in the morning. “it keeps no account of wrongs” means you stop running the ledger. You hand the books to God.

Paul says love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” This does not mean love is naive or lets abuse continue. Love can confront. Love can set wise boundaries. But love keeps covering, keeps hoping, keeps showing up. It refuses to write anybody off as beyond the reach of God.

And then Paul says, “Love never fails.” Prophecies will end. Knowledge will fade. Every gift we brag about has an expiration date. Love does not. The way you love your family and your neighbor this week will outlast your career, your house, and your reputation. So ask the Spirit for it. Not a feeling of love, but the real thing, patient and kind and tough enough to last.