1 Corinthians 13:4-7

                                                             1 Corinthians 13:4-7

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.

 

Paul gives us an accurate definition of what love is and a complete description of what love does and doesn’t do.  Perhaps the simplest way to summarize love is simply that it focuses on others.  This is a significant passage because Jesus summarizes the basic responsibility of believers as loving one another.  This passage explains what that looks like.

 

LOVE SERVES OTHERS: Selfishness is the natural condition of every man woman and child on the face of the earth.  We all look after our own interests and seek our own advantages.  We can see this from a child with toys or an adult with money.  God does not save us to leave us in our natural state.  He saves us to transform us into the image of Christ.  Christ came to serve, not to be served.  This service is marked by patience, kindness, humility and being polite.  This type of love must be unconditional because that is how Christ loves and we must initiate this kind of love not simply respond to it.

 

LOVE SUBMITS TO OTHERS: When we love someone, we put their needs and desires ahead of our own.  We submit our own agenda and preferences to that what will meet the needs of others.  However, it does this without allowing bitterness or pride to mark our hearts and minds.  Love will always want the best for others in light of eternity.  That means that there are times where love will have to say no to the desires of another because of wrong and sinful desires.  Truth and righteousness are what is best for others even when they do not know or believe it.

 

LOVE SUFFERS FOR OTHERS: There will usually be a price to pay for love.  It is also not a given that the object of our love will respond positively to our love in any way.  In fact, just the opposite may be true.  Love is willing to continue loving even in the face of rejection and at high personal cost.  Again, Jesus is the clear example of this kind of sacrificial and unconditional love.  No matter what we are called to endure because of love, we will continue to have hope and continue to love.

 

APPLICATION: Seek for ways to serve the people around us in practical ways that demonstrate love.  Be in tune to the needs of others and put them ahead of our own.  Be sure that the standards of Scripture and the character of Christ are upheld and promoted by our love.  Continue to love those who do not love in return and be willing to suffer loss in the practice of love.

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