1st Corinthians 13:1-8 (NJKV)

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails..."


I'm not saying anything new about it, I'm sure. I'm just thinking about this passage in a more convicting way (for me). Love is important. Yes, I know: duh. Everybody, whether saved or not, wants to be loved. It's no new concept. God was before everything and God is love. God sent His only Son to save us because "he so loved the world." Jesus said the most important commandment in the law is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and the second is similar, to love your neighbor as yourself. But I wonder at times...I know true love has to be worked at - I know I don't follow the above description completely. Not near to. I know I never can totally attain to it. I love God and others because He first loved me, but I'll never be able to love in the same way. I'll never be utterly selfless the way Christ is. I'll mess up. I do mess up all the time. But how I so long to change my way of thinking, my way of loving.
How does this compare to the way I treat people? My family and friends, fellow believers, the unsaved people around me? How about how I think about them? Do I envy? Do I judge? Do I completely forgive them? Do I only love them because they love me? There are times when I haven't been that lovely, and other people have still shown love toward me. Whether it was by something they did or something they didn't do. Like they didn't get angry for the foolish thing I did, they just hoped "for everything," and were kind. They kept no record of my past wrongs, but forgave me. That's love.

But how can I really know what love is? How can anyone? I know only what God has revealed to me. That passage goes on to say, "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known."

I can't even grasp how much more, how much deeper things that are hard for me to understand now may be some day, when things are fully revealed. But for now, I know that God shows me what he wants me to know, what I need to know. And if I'm following him, seeking him first, inquiring of him, he will give me more understanding, so I can glorify him with my life.

I have a lot to learn. Some people have been created with very compassionate hearts - it's so good to see those people following the Lord. My sister is amazing in that way to me. She makes everyone feel good and accepted. She doesn't show favoritism because of something someone has or hasn't done. She makes me think of Jane from Pride and Prejudice - ha. She's as definitely as pretty as her. :) I think of a passage I just learned today, James 4:11-12, "Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgement on it. There is only one Law giver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you - who are you to judge your neighbor?"

How I need to be more humble. Always.

The part of 1st Corinthians that has been running through my head the most is that love suffers long and yet is kind! Bears all things, rejoices in the truth (even when it's hard to hear?), believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

I don't know why I'm writing about all of this. I guess it helps me to think about things to write them out. What I usually write about on here is so utterly pointless, not even worth thinking about, much less writing about or reading about. But I can never say that God's Word is pointless.

"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

-becca