1 Corinthians 13:4-8 "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away."
Notice in this passage, God never says to love others only if they measure up to our own idea of perfection.
When we love someone, we are able to see their good character qualities as well as their flaws. If we only choose to see the good side of someone, then we cannot fully love them. The mentality is that unless they are perfect in our own minds, we cannot love them.
Being able to see both the good and the flaws and still love them without our own expectations, this is the true nature of love.
When we cannot admit flaws, it is the same as pretending someone is perfect; this reveals that we are not able to love them if we see anything but perfection.
God loved us while we were still sinners! He knew our flaws fully and addressed them to help us improve; this is love.
Love is not about pretending perfection in those we love; it is about accepting everything about a person, flaws and warts too, which helps us learn their character and their needs.
Admitting the flaws of others while still loving them helps us to see our own flaws that need to be addressed.
Ephesians 4:1-3 "4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. "
It takes patience to interact with others because no one is perfect and everyone has irritating habits.
Romans 12:12 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, persistent in prayer."
When we are able to see our own flaws and needs for improvement, we will be able to be patient with others who struggle with their own defects.
A side note that I have observed over the years is that those who work so hard to put across a perfect persona rarely have much of a personality. They are so tightly wound and bound up with pride that they hide their real selves out of fear others will judge them the way they judge others.
Those who cannot accept others when they have flaws know they have their own defects and don't want to admit it, so they are continually pretending while never confessing to be cleansed.
Most people never change and grow because the only way to do that is to admit flaws, confessing sins to God to be cleansed by Him.
1 John 1:9 "9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
No one can grow close to anyone else as long as they expect perfection, the perfection they have in their own mind. No one can grow in holiness while they are still playing the role of perfection so that others will elevate them.
The freest person in the world is the one who can admit their own flaws, accept the flaws of others and love them fully anyway.
Romans 5:7-9 "…7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him!"
Laying down our lives for others does not require them to be perfect or flawless.
Colossians 1:21-22 "Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence."
1 Timothy 1:15 "This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst."
When we have been loved so fully by God, we cannot be contemptuous toward others, even in covert ways; our love runs deep, too deep to treat anyone disrespectfully because they are not perfect.
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