Did Love fail?

[Salty]

I Cor 13: 8 states "Love never fails"

When a Christian couple divorce, did love fail. Suppose she wanted to revive the marriage - how can she love her ex-husband if he gave no love to her.
Suppose a man remarries - can he still have love for his first wife? while giving unconditional love to his current wife?

NOTE: THIS IS NOT A DISCUSSION ON WHETHER DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE - IS BIBLICAL. PLEASE KEEP COMMENTS BASED ON OP!

 

[Palatka51]

Love is long suffering and endures all things. If a marriage fails it was not a vow of love that was broken else a vow of love would have endured.

 

[Salty]

Love is long suffering and endures all things. If a marriage fails it was not a vow of love that was broken else a vow of love would have endured.

So are you saying that (true) love was never present?

 

[Palatka51]

So are you saying that (true) love was never present?

Love is shared Salty. If one loves another and it is not returned it will break. One person of a marriage might genuinely love the other but the other might be in it for other reasons. True love is when both are committed to each other no matter what.

 

[Salty]

Love is shared Salty. If one loves another and it is not returned it will break. One person of a marriage might genuinely love the other but the other might be in it for other reasons. True love is when both are committed to each other no matter what.

But God loves us even though we may not love Him. Would that be a fair comparrision?

 

[John of Japan]

I Cor 13: 8 states "Love never fails"

When a Christian couple divorce, did love fail. Suppose she wanted to revive the marriage - how can she love her ex-husband if he gave no love to her.
Suppose a man remarries - can he still have love for his first wife? while giving unconditional love to his current wife?

NOTE: THIS IS NOT A DISCUSSION ON WHETHER DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE - IS BIBLICAL. PLEASE KEEP COMMENTS BASED ON OP!

This verse 8 must be taken in context with the whole passage of 1 Cor. 13. If a Christian practices the love depicted in 1 Cor. 13, that love will never fail. But what does "fail" mean in this case? Does it mean to stop, or to end in failure? I believe it means to stop. True agape love will not stop loving.

Here is the definition from the Anlex lexicon of the Greek word used here:
ἐκπίπτω 1aor. ἐξέπεσα ; 2aor. ἐξέπεσον ; pf. ἐκπέπτωκα ; basically fall out of or down from; (1) literally; (a) of withered blossoms fall off (JA 1.11); (b) of fetters fall off (AC 12.7); (c) as a nautical technical term, of ships drift off course, be driven onto rocks, run aground (AC 27.17); (2) figuratively; (a) of the loss of favor or grace lose, no longer experience (GA 5.4); (b) of the nonfulfillment of a divine promise fail, lose effect (RO 9.6)

Now, to answer the question in the OP, my belief is that when a Christian marriage fails, one or both parties did not love in the 1 Cor. 13 way. This passage uses the word agape, of course, which in my belief is love that is decided. God loves us in the midst of our sin because He decided to, not because of anything we do or are. That is the love of 1 Cor. 13.

However, to make a marriage sweet and true, one more kind of love is needed, and that is philos, the Greek word for friendship love. Christian marriage must be a partnership, a shared love, a friendship, "two hearts in one body" as someone said.

So, in the case of the OP, if that friendship remains, the marriage can be saved or renewed. If the friendship is dead, if the couple really has nothing in common and nothing they like to do together, there is not much chance of renewing the marriage, in my view.

I hope this helps! :type:

 

[Jim1999]

My understanding is that love has different chacteristics. There is emotional love. We think we have love, the enduring kind that will never end, but in the final analyses it was a temporal love with human limitations. The human limitations reach a road block and we give up.

There is another love which is onesided. It is a love that goes beyond human emotion. This is the love that God is. The love that reaches out, not for gain, but because it is innate and eternal. The love comes from within and is not based on emotion.

I may express love for an individual and that individual may never return that love. It is the love that God plants in the believer's heart for fellow humans and develops in the desire to see that one come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

In counselling a couple for marriage, a prime question to ask them is, "Do you like each other enough to do this..................?" Every new couple thinks they love each other, but do they really like each other.

It is the like/love that fades in marriage failure. They get into unimaginable debt and blame each other and suddenly the like/love diminishes because our physical wants are now limited. It is your fault! No, it is your fault! The personal failure of "fault" enters into the picture and that love fails.

There is good reason for the three types of "love" presented in the Koina Greek language.

Cheers,

Jim

 

[MB]

I Cor 13: 8 states "Love never fails"

When a Christian couple divorce, did love fail. Suppose she wanted to revive the marriage - how can she love her ex-husband if he gave no love to her.
Suppose a man remarries - can he still have love for his first wife? while giving unconditional love to his current wife?

NOTE: THIS IS NOT A DISCUSSION ON WHETHER DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE - IS BIBLICAL. PLEASE KEEP COMMENTS BASED ON OP!

I believe that if you trully Love someone you will always love them. As far as Love failing. We have to remember what 1st Cor 13 says about it.

1Co 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
1Co 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

If Love could force another to Love. How could it not behave unseemly. It would be evil indeed to force someone or even try to force someone else to Love.
MB

 

[thegospelgeek]

Love never fails I Cor 13: 8

Short answer NO.

We fail but Love never fails.

When a Christian couple divorce, did love fail. Suppose she wanted to revive the marriage - how can she love her ex-husband if he gave no love to her.

Contrary to poular belief, love requires nothing in return. You can choose to love unconditionally. I have witnesses this in more than one occasion. It seems be more common in women than men, but I have seen it in both. I know women where I think, why would you stay with him? But they do, and not only stay, but love their husband regardless of how loveless the other side of the relationship is. If it requires love in return, how can one love someone who has an incapacitating illness? We have seen cases of Alheimers patients where the spouse continues to love and care for one who does not even know who they are.

Suppose a man remarries - can he still have love for his first wife? while giving unconditional love to his current wife?

I have seen people who divorece and are genuinely concerned with the well being of the other. It would be hard for me to imagine not having at least some love for the mother of my children.

 

[Jarthur001]

So are you saying that (true) love was never present?

Pure 100% love is God.

 

[North Carolina Tentmaker]

I agree with a lot what has already been said here except what Palatka51 said

Love is shared Salty. If one loves another and it is not returned it will break.

No No No

Not the kind of love in I Cor 13:8.

I Cor is talking about pure Agape love. That is unconditional, undeserved, unreturned love. The kind of love that loves if it is returned or not. And if that Agape love was present, then no it will not fail. The marriage may fail. One spouse may leave the other, but the love will not fail and it will remain.

To many times as humans we don't even have the ability to love like God does. Perhaps there are cases when we do, but most of us don't. Does our love touch God's? Even our love of our spouse or children? When a spouse deserts us or a child profanes our name. When our love is returned with nothing but hate and rejection, will we still love? What did God do? And what did we individually and collectively do to Him?

If you have that true Agape love for your spouse then it will not fail. Even when they leave you for another and the marriage fails, your love will continue.