I have heard it said so many times “Love is blind”. I am sure I have even said it before, not really thinking about what that phrase means. I have even heard “If love is blind, then marriage is an eye-opener.” Have you ever heard those statements? Have you said them? Maybe they have been said to you, in regards to a relationship.
That statement “Love is blind” has always puzzled me, and to be frank with you, for a long time it has bugged me. I think this is one of those things people say because they heard someone else say it and they took it as truth. Maybe, it is said to get a laugh out of someone, but I think it is so far from the truth. There is no way love is blind!
The writer John said in 1 John 4 that God is love. That word love is an action word. Why do I say that? In verse 9, John makes it really clear “In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” Right here it lays out the fact that God’s love was something that He took action on.
He didn’t just say “I love you”, but He demonstrated it to us through Jesus, and then through the indwelling life of Christ in the Holy Spirit.
So, if you believe the statement “Love is blind”, do you really think God is blind? It is pretty clear in 1 John 4 that He is love, so again I ask, “Is He blind”? No, He is not.
He sees everything we are and everything we are not and He completes us! He chose to send Jesus as the payment for our mistakes. He chooses to accept us due to this action of love He bestowed on us in Christ.
God chooses to remember our sins no longer. In Christ, He completed the work of our shortcomings, our mishaps, and our unbelief that manifests in unhealthy actions.
To say “Love is blind” is to say “God is blind.” I would like to challenge you a bit in this mindset. Think about this…love isn’t blind, but rather love overlooks flaws and love accepts.
So what does love look like? It looks like the person of Jesus. Paul writes about it in 1 Corinthians 13 beginning in verse 4. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
That looks like the Jesus I know! That looks like someone that knows everything about me, but chooses to accept me even with the places of unbelief in my heart!
Ephesians 1:4-6 says, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” Right here Paul is giving the believers a beautiful picture of how accepted we are to God because of Jesus!!
In our relationships with others, in love, we choose to overlook the things that are hurtful, the things that rub us the wrong way. Jesus: “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” We can extend His love and grace to those we are in relationship with, even when they hurt us the most!
Written by Gretchen Cannon