My study bible highlights in the notes: Love is more important than all the spiritual gifts exercised in the church body – love demonstrates the ultimate purpose of human existence. God’s love is the reason this world exists and why he wants to spend eternity with us. We have the wonderful opportunity to love him in return and love others because we understand how love changes everything for good.
Amen, study bible, Amen.
As of late, it seems as though we (collectively) could use a reminder when it comes to what love looks like.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Love can be a tricky word.
Worldly love, is often surrounded by lust, pleasure, desires, and ideals no one can live up to. Often it’s skewed into this impure form of something that is unhealthy for our souls. Worldly love comes with all kinds of conditions. Often times we feel as though we fail at love because of this. It leaves us feeling empty inside because it most often lets us down.
Naturally, the Devil knows if we lose love we have nothing.
So Love becomes his #1 plan of attack. He’ll scramble and skew love any way he can.
He divides and destroys relationships. In our friendships, courtships, marriages, church relationships, nothing is safe of being divided he leaves us questioning ourselves; am I capable of love? Why does everything around me keep falling apart? Why do I feel so alone even when I’m surrounded by “love”.
Love is:
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
(1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
Sometimes I like to read it this way!
Love is: Patient and Kind
It does not: envy, boast, have pride or dishonor others.
Love is not: self-seeking or easily angered.
It keeps no record of wrong.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth.
It always: protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres.
Jesus IS Love
Without Jesus these verses, with a worldly eye look like this:
On my own, my love is not patient or kind, it envy’s often, boasts any chance it gets, is riddled with pride. It is self-seeking at least once daily (on a good day), and oh man is it easily angered. 100% it keeps record of wrongs, it delights in evil because evil is everywhere disguised as good. It rejoices in the few moments of truth it may receive. My love doesn’t protect, rather it hurts people, it’s hard to trust when trusting lets you down. It hopes only until the next bad thing and perseveres as long as the winds don’t change. Everything about worldly love is conditional (If this, than…). On my own Love is downright impossible.
Because I have Jesus, He covers all of my imperfect love.
Daily I try to live life as He did, perfectly. When that doesn’t go to plan and or I stumble and fall (which is more often than not because I’m human). He covers my imperfect love with his perfect love in those moments when I seek his forgiveness.
With/In Jesus my love is:
Patient and Kind
It does not: envy, boast, have pride or dishonor others.
Love is not: self-seeking or easily angered.
It keeps no record of wrong.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth.
It always: protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres.
(Unconditional Love = Jesus)
A Love Letter to the Church and the World
Dear Friends, we are incapable of love on our own.
We are a broken people who are stumbling around in the darkness that has seeped into this world.
Jesus tells us to “take heart for I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 paraphrased) He alone is the Light of the World. The flame that burns for us in the darkness to light the way, that is Jesus. Without him we are broken. In him we are full.
When we are in discord with one another, let us not think on our earthly acts of love towards one another. Let us remember the love we have for one another when we love unconditionally in Christ Jesus. Jesus washes away our records our judgements our self-seeking desires, our pride.
We as a church body and we as individual people need to get out of the way with our worldly thoughts and actions.
Bring our thoughts and minds back to the same common goal:
The will of God, which lies in Christ Jesus his Son. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39 paraphrased)
This is when we’re walking in the right kind of love!
The Pure love of Christ.