1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-8a – “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.”
THEME OF THE DAY: THIS IS LOVE. If we stood on a busy street corner surveying people with one question, “How would you define love?”, what do we think the answers would be? We would hear a lot about feelings, affections, and maybe a few comments about commitment, but I am not sure we would get many quotes from today’s scripture. The world understands little of true love as defined by the Bible. It mostly operates on definitions pointing to raw emotions, lust, or infatuation – clear opposites from God’s Word. The Bible never defines love without mentioning faithfulness, sacrifice, and action.
In today’s scripture, the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians what is known as the “love chapter” in our Bibles. What unfolds for us is beautiful and gives substance to what Jesus affirms is our identity as His followers; love for His people – “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).
We should apply this love in two directions. First, realize this is how God loves us. Really. He does. He is patient and kind. He is not arrogant, rude, irritable, or resentful. He bears all things and will never stop loving us. Meditate on such love. Behind this love is the truth of Christianity. Why? He first loved us (1 John 4:19). The moment we start believing and resting in God’s 1 Corinthians 13 love for us is the moment we begin to experience the Christian life God wants; a life under the control of His love.
The second direction is a natural flow from the first. We apply this love of God in our daily conduct with and toward people. We are left in the world for people to see the reality that God is love, and He demonstrated that love through the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. He then reveals it through His people experiencing it.
Pray that the Lord makes us aware that we experience His love to share and proclaim His love. It is a contradiction to profess publicly “I know the love of God” yet not desire for others to know this love of God. And it is a further disconnect for us to say, “I know the love of God” but remain silent and not actively share this love of God.
A fitting conclusion for today’s devotion would be to commit to taking time alone with God in the near future and pray through 1 Corinthians 13. Let our prayers be something like this . . . “Lord, grant that I might experience more and more this love You have for me.” Then, “Lord, make me a means of getting this love to all the people you bring into my life. May I do so in words and deeds.”
PRAYER: Father, I praise You for such love to me. May it propel me to love others as I am loved.
REFLECTION: To experience the love of God is the height of Christian experience now and forever.