"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (1 John 4:8).
More Love, More Power - Michael Smith
The ultimate love is that God could have ended everything with man, but he did not, even flooding the earth to wash away man's filth he chose a man to carry on humanity. Eventually to reconcile himself with man, Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us, and although he existed in the form of God he counted himself not equal to God but took on the form of a servant, in the likeness of humans, he humbled himself becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-9).
God's love is often opposite of what the world teaches, but the Bible is clear when it speaks about God's love; if I speak with languages of men and angels, if I have prophecy and are perceiving all secrets and knowledge and have faith that moves mountains, if I give away all I have even my body to be burned, if I have not love, I am nothing, it benefits me not (1 Corinthians 13). The Bible says that anything I do which is not of God's love will be discarded.
Love rejoices in truth, is patient, and is forgoing, believing, and enduring all things. It is not self-seeking, indecent, prideful, easily provoked, nor does it account for evil, v.4-8. The best gauge for maturity in Christ is God's love, it is a mirror that we can look into and see God or not see God in us. When I was a child, I spoke, accounted, and had the will of a child, but when I became a man I have discarded childish things,v.11. I have discarded everything that is not love, everything that is not eternal.
Before when I was a child I observed through a mirror an enigma (a person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand), but now face to face I am knowing and recognizing God's love and I am recognized by it, v.12-13. Jesus gave a new commandment to love as he has loved, knowing how active the enemy would be in the church, he gave us a way to fight, by building up in love (Ephesian 4:16). It is not easy loving God's kind of love, it takes having the mind of Christ, especially when there is no reconciliation, when others do not admit fault nor guilt, when others are still looking into the enigma.