1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-8 – If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”
THEME OF THE DAY: WHAT IS LOVE? A ten-year old boy named Tommy was assigned the topic “What is Love?” for a school composition. This is what he wrote, “Love is something that makes two people think they are pretty even when nobody else does. It also makes them sit close together on a bench even when there’s plenty of room. It’s something which makes two people very quiet when you are around. And when they think you’re gone they talk about roses and dreams. And that’s all I know about love until I grow up.”
Well, how “grown up” are we in our understanding of love? How would we write our “school composition on the topic what is love? In answering those questions, let’s get the wrong answers out of the way; the worldly wrong answers. Love is not physical lust. Love is not emotional infatuation which is self-driven and won’t last. Love is not sentimental feelings that ebb and flow like the ocean tides. Love is not an “If you” condition.
The correct answers obviously come from the One who is love – God (1 John 4:16). He is love not only defined but modeled. Jesus told His disciples, to include us, these words – A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35). The command to love and Christ modeling of that love are defined in today’s scripture.
As one works through 1 Corinthians 13 and love’s definition, there are two things to notice. First, these are not feelings first. They are attitudes manifested in actions. Now don’t think I am advocating an “emotionless” love. Not at all, but first and foremost Biblical love starts with attitudes of the mind and heart which is always affirmed by actions. Just look through the list and see this inseparable relationship. Take the first two for instance – patience and kindness. They start in the mind and heart followed by outward expressions or actions. So, when we say, “I love someone” don’t start with feelings. Evaluate if our words of love are followed with deeds of love.
Another thing about Biblical love, as defined by 1 Corinthians 13 and modeled by Jesus, is the direction it goes. True love is never about ourselves or what we may gain from loving others. True love gives and gives and keeps on giving with never a thought of personal gain or “What is in it for me?” as it is lived out.
So, time to turn in our compositions on “What is love?” Will it indicate we have “grown up” to grasp what the Lord says is love? But more importantly, will it indicate we are living this type of love as the Lord modeled and models to us? After all, that is the chief indicator we are His people.
PRAYER: “Father, teach me to know and then practice love as defined by you not my understanding or the world.”
QUOTE: “Christ’s love is what truly defines love and we, as His people, are to demonstrate it to all people, all the time.”
Because of Him,
Pastor Jim