When Rick Warren gave his farewell message to Saddleback Church on August 21, 2022, he focused on love. He said, “If I could only say one last thing to you as your pastor, I want to say this: live a life of love.” He went on to add, “Inject love into everything you do and express love to everyone you meet. I’m not talking about loving your family and loving your friends. That’s easy to do. Anybody, even an atheist, can do that. Loving those who are lovable doesn’t require God’s Spirit in your life…Living a life of love means you make a conscious effort to show love to anybody and everybody and all people with no exceptions, regardless of how they look, what they believe, how they vote, and every other difference that we see in our society.”
“Love can make you put up with anything while at the same time hoping for the best.”
How important is love? From the Scriptural standpoint, it is the royal law. It is also a proof that we love God. The Scripture argues that if we cannot love people who we see, we cannot love God who we do not see. Loving is living in God! On Rick Warren’s part, love was the motivation he had to keep going when he had reasons to stop – when things were painful. He narrated a rare, incurable brain disorder with which he was born. This often gives him excruciating pain when he speaks publicly. Preaching for those 43 years was like passing through the crucible. How did he survive? His answer was, “Because I was always trying to do that I was doing out of love for God and for you”. Part of the characteristics of love as listed in our text are long-suffering and endurance. Love can make you put up with anything while at the same time hoping for the best.