Love is………..
For those of you who missed the Valentines Evening, I would like to share one of the things that went on that evening. Linda and her crew did a really good job of putting together a good meal and a good time of fellowship. However, the thing that I was really touched by was a simple reading of 1 Corinthians 13. Debbie Rioux did a beautiful job of reading through the chapter from the Living Bible translation. I was touched by the way she read it and thought I would share some of the things that Paul wrote describing “LOVE”.
Verses 1 through 8 from the CSB.
Love: The Superior Way
13 If I speak in human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. 8 Love never ends.
Paul was a man enlisted by the Lord to reach out to the other people. Who? Us, the Gentiles. He had persecuted those, the new believers, who had turned to follow this man, Christ. And the Lord met him on the road to Damascus, turned him around and taught him “LOVE”.
WOW!
In Verses 1 through 3, he tells us that without love we are what?
- Without love, my words or my message is like a clanging cymbal
If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
- And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Then Paul tells us, in 4 through 8, that this is what love is, what love does, and what love does not do:
- Love is kind
- Love is patient
- Love does not envy,
- Love is not boastful,
- Love is not arrogant,
- Love is not rude,
- Love is not self-seeking,
- Love is not irritable,
- Love does not keep a record of wrongs.
- Love finds no joy in unrighteousness
- Love rejoices in the truth.
- Love bears all things,
- Love believes all things,
- Love hopes all things,
- Love endures all things.
- Love never ends.
Could you give your heart to someone with these traits? I could!
All of this from a man who participated in the stoning of Stephen.. This from a man who persecuted believers. This from a man who, after finding Christ on that road, learned what love was, learned what love looked like, and learned what love meant. His life changed on that road. He shared through this chapter what we, as believers, can see of our Heavenly Father.
Take each of the traits Paul identifies in the list above and change the word Love to the name God and you will find the nature of Him in whom we believe.
Respectfully submitted,
Ed J