2014-04-11 - Love, Love, Love

Love, love, love - it’s all about love so, today, that’s what we’re going to examine. We find in scripture that love is very important.

Matthew 22:35-40 (NASB)

One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the great and foremost commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus tells us exactly what to do. Our greatest commands direct from Jesus' mouth are to love God with every fiber of our being and secondly to love people as much as we love ourselves. These two things really do sum up all the law. You won't put other things before God as false idols if you love him above all. You won't steal from someone if you love them as much as you love yourself because you will want them to have their own stuff.

Well that’s well and good for Jesus to tell us we need to do these things but if I'm being honest I must confess that knowing what to do and fully grasping and executing on the how to do it is an issue for me. I struggle at times with knowing what that looks like and how it plays out. Am I alone or do any of you not get it?

Well as luck, or more accurately divine providence, would have it God knew we might need help so he inspired Paul to write 1 Corinthians 13. Below you will find the passage in two different translations. I encourage you to read it in many more as well to really get a handle on the words being used.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

(NIRV) - Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not want what belongs to others. It does not brag. It is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude. It does not look out for its own interests. It does not easily become angry. It does not keep track of other people’s wrongs. ⁶ Love is not happy with evil. But it is full of joy when the truth is spoken. ⁷ It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes. It never gives up. ⁸ Love never fails.

(NASB) - Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵ does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸ Love never fails

This is the how to manual on love. Love is …

Patient Kind Not Jealous Not Arrogant

Not Rude Not Self-serving Not Provoked Forgives

Not Satisfied with Evil Longing for Truth Protective Trustung

Hopeful Never Quitting

Work through all fourteen of these things with examples of how they play out with God and with others. To help I will get you started with the first one.

I love God when I patiently allow him to carve away the bad in my life without complaining. I love others when I patiently deal with people who totally stress me out and choose not to go ballistic on them.

And now you can run with the others. This would make for a great group activity for your family or friends.

IHFHBOH
Adam

acdum@hotmail.com
http://www.cfdevotionals.org

All scripture references are from the KJV unless otherwise noted.