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 truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails....1 Cor 13:4-8a....
This passage of scripture has been heavy on my mind lately. Surely because I need to be reminded of these truths often but it seems as if it is more than that. As I have been studying the word, I am confronted with the fact that I can read the same verse as another yet we conclude two very different things. This is true on so many issues: Lordship/Free Grace, Calvinism/Arminians, Total Depravity/?almost depraved (not sure of the label there), bondage of the will/freedom of the will...and while all of things are important and deserve to be prayerfully studied there is something to be said about studying Love....the Love that saved us, the Love that caused our hearts repentance, the love that we are given and the love we are told to give to God and others. We need to know what this love looks like if we are to walk in it. First and foremost it is given to us by the Holy Spirit Himself. He has given us the grace to do what He has called us to do. There is just no way to love anyone the way that this passage describes apart from Jesus. (The name above all names) The same God that created this world, raised Jesus from the dead, and saved a wretch like me, is the same God that enables me to pursue and desire the love He gives.
1. love suffers long and is kind: how long before I am unkind to my children during school? how long before the snippy remark is made to someone that may disagree on the blog? how long before our co worker gets a taste of that suffering long?
2. love does not envy and does not parade itself: what about when the brethren prosper yet I do not? how many of us truly want to be unknown and never commended, never spoken highly of? who of us has not paraded ourselves in some area? our knowledge, our gifts, our love? (look at me how loving I am, look at how much I love God? really?)
This is just enough to keep me on my knees daily in prayer for God to grow my love!
3. does not behave rudely? surely we need zero help here to recognize this in our own life....does not seek its own, is not provoked? of course we all seek our own when we aren't walking in love, when we are seeking the best for our brother we do not do the things listed above, we wouldn't taste the anger of being put out by not being obeyed or not getting our own way or whatever our particular thing may be.
4.thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity: that can be as simple as placing sin before our eyes in the form of entertainment and being happy that we are being entertained by sin....we are not to rejoice in sin and we are to think upon evil...whatever things are lovely, pure, noble...these things we are to think on..and dare we call something that is clear sin LOVE? we cannot clean up iniquity by calling it by another name (addiction, an affair, just playing, etc )
5.bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things: YES! this is what love is...this is what Christ does for us! He bears all things, He was the bearer of our very iniquity...we are forgiven all things thru Christ..can we not forgive? can we not love others with the love we receive? can we not endure and have hope in all situations? These verses are not just for us in dealing with our family or our brothers....we are to love those who hate us. As God first loved us when we were haters of Him.
6. Love never fails: before we say whatever we are thinking, do we think of this love? before we post that comment that we feel justified in posting, do we think of this love? before we excuse sin in our life or in the life of those around us, do we think of this love? before we blog away, study away, talk away, advise away, serve away, work away do we think of this love?
We need You Jesus to work in our life, in our mind and in our hearts that we may walk in this love......
How great the Fathers love for us? It never fails.........
This passage of scripture has been heavy on my mind lately. Surely because I need to be reminded of these truths often but it seems as if it is more than that. As I have been studying the word, I am confronted with the fact that I can read the same verse as another yet we conclude two very different things. This is true on so many issues: Lordship/Free Grace, Calvinism/Arminians, Total Depravity/?almost depraved (not sure of the label there), bondage of the will/freedom of the will...and while all of things are important and deserve to be prayerfully studied there is something to be said about studying Love....the Love that saved us, the Love that caused our hearts repentance, the love that we are given and the love we are told to give to God and others. We need to know what this love looks like if we are to walk in it. First and foremost it is given to us by the Holy Spirit Himself. He has given us the grace to do what He has called us to do. There is just no way to love anyone the way that this passage describes apart from Jesus. (The name above all names) The same God that created this world, raised Jesus from the dead, and saved a wretch like me, is the same God that enables me to pursue and desire the love He gives.
1. love suffers long and is kind: how long before I am unkind to my children during school? how long before the snippy remark is made to someone that may disagree on the blog? how long before our co worker gets a taste of that suffering long?
2. love does not envy and does not parade itself: what about when the brethren prosper yet I do not? how many of us truly want to be unknown and never commended, never spoken highly of? who of us has not paraded ourselves in some area? our knowledge, our gifts, our love? (look at me how loving I am, look at how much I love God? really?)
This is just enough to keep me on my knees daily in prayer for God to grow my love!
3. does not behave rudely? surely we need zero help here to recognize this in our own life....does not seek its own, is not provoked? of course we all seek our own when we aren't walking in love, when we are seeking the best for our brother we do not do the things listed above, we wouldn't taste the anger of being put out by not being obeyed or not getting our own way or whatever our particular thing may be.
4.thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity: that can be as simple as placing sin before our eyes in the form of entertainment and being happy that we are being entertained by sin....we are not to rejoice in sin and we are to think upon evil...whatever things are lovely, pure, noble...these things we are to think on..and dare we call something that is clear sin LOVE? we cannot clean up iniquity by calling it by another name (addiction, an affair, just playing, etc )
5.bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things: YES! this is what love is...this is what Christ does for us! He bears all things, He was the bearer of our very iniquity...we are forgiven all things thru Christ..can we not forgive? can we not love others with the love we receive? can we not endure and have hope in all situations? These verses are not just for us in dealing with our family or our brothers....we are to love those who hate us. As God first loved us when we were haters of Him.
6. Love never fails: before we say whatever we are thinking, do we think of this love? before we post that comment that we feel justified in posting, do we think of this love? before we excuse sin in our life or in the life of those around us, do we think of this love? before we blog away, study away, talk away, advise away, serve away, work away do we think of this love?
We need You Jesus to work in our life, in our mind and in our hearts that we may walk in this love......
How great the Fathers love for us? It never fails.........
Well said!!
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