Monday, December 2 - Do I Really Exhibit Love But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. (1 Corinthians 12:31) There seems to be a pause between these two sentences. In fact my study Bible breaks these two sentences into two separate paragraphs. It is as if to say, Yes, I want you to earnestly desire the higher gifts, but let me show you the more desirable one, the one you and everyone else in the church body are to exhibit. And then he launches into a beautiful description of that gift in Chapter 13 - LOVE, wrapping it up with this marvelous truth -So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love (13:13). The world has greatly confused this word love, relegating it back to merely lust. The love that God exhibits toward His creation has nothing to do with lust. Lust is not abiding. It is fleeting. I lust for this thing today and that thing tomorrow. But if I have abiding love, it is not fleeting. I do not wake up tomorrow and find I no longer love, whatever or whoever that might be. I may wake up and find I do not like them as much, or am disappointed in them, but I do not cease to love them. A beautiful reminder of the love of God is found in 1 John 4:19 - We love because he first loved us. I can really love no other way. This is agape love, a selfless love. Far removed from how the world defines the English word. This is why I can love those that I never before thought possible. This is how cultural barriers are torn down in my life. This is how the church is built up. This also speaks loudly as to why most of the hospitals and orphanages in this last 200 years were founded by Christians, in places where none would otherwise be found. This is why recovery ministries spring up under Interstate highway overpasses and in undesirable neighborhoods. Love distinguishes not between geographical and cultural boundaries. So how can I? If I do, then it is time to take serious inventory of my spiritual condition. Love is patient and kind. Am I? Love does not envy or boast. Do I? It is not arrogant or rude. Am I? It does not insist on its own way. Do I? It is not irritable or resentful? Am I? It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Do I? Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Do I?
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 12:01:17 +0000
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