Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (1 Cor. 13:4-7)

In other words, love is a spineless doormat. Love is when you help people destroy themselves by encouraging them to give in to all of their carnal instincts to use and abuse you. No, this isn’t love at all, it is unhealthy dysfunction. Godly love has boundaries. Godly love says no, it dishes out painful spankings to curb bratty behavior. Godly love doesn’t pretend the past never happened. If you rob your father blind, what should he do: pretend it never happened or change the locks? Don’t fall for the lie that godly love has to live in some land of delusions. When you learn that your husband is doing it with his secretary, godly love announces that he’ll be sleeping on the couch until he shows some sign of sincere repentance. When your headstrong teenager is getting high off of cussing you out and destroying your property, real love takes his toys away and tells him if he can’t scrape up some respect for your authority, he’d better find somewhere else to live. God is not some pansy who lays down in the dirt and invites us to walk all over Him. It isn’t loving to not tell your wife to step off when she’s being obnoxious. Those who promote this rot about “speaking the truth in love” in the Church today would do well to read through the prophetic books and see how the epitome of love spoke to those who were defying His Authority (see Speaking the Truth in Love). Real love most certainly is rude when rude is what is called for. Real love’s patience and kindness are limited. And if we’re talking about how God loves us, love is extremely jealous.