July 16th, 2007
Love
“Love never ends.”
1 Corinthians 13:8a
This weekend I spent a lot of time with various people talking about our need, as Christians, to love others. Yes, there is a place for confrontation and “spurring one another on towards righteousness”. But, as I stated in my last blog, there is never a place for a judgmental attitude. In fact, the scripture does not declare “These three remain, faith, hope and righteousness. But the greatest of these is righteousness.” God knows we will fail. He knows we will not be fully righteous, so the declaration is “These three remain, faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)
So, this weekend I thought a lot about what it really means to love someone. As I struggled with the command of love in the light of the reality of love, I kept coming back to the great love chapter. I will put it here, taken from the NET Bible (I did put in the word “love” when it just had the pronoun “it” in order to help keep our thought on the object). I purposefully used a version that is extremely accurate as a translation but not one that we typically read so as to bring fresh meaning to this well-known passage. My prayer, as women who love the Lord, is that we will not only agree with the concept of loving each other but that God will teach us how to take the next step and live out that love, tough as it may be.
Love is patient,
Love is kind,
Love is not envious.
Love does not brag
Love is not puffed up.
Love is not rude.
Love is not self-serving.
Love is not easily angered or resentful.
Love is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth.
Love bears all things.
Love believes all things.
Love hopes all things.
Love endures all things.
Love never ends.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
You know the amazing thing? Knowing that love is patient, I may work for years perfecting my patience for people. However the patience that I practice is a small, dimly reflected droplet of patience compared to the depth of God’s patience for me. So again, as I struggle with living love for others I know that my duty is to love because God’s love vastly supersedes my own.