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Date Posted: Sun, Mar 28 04
Author: Kenny
Subject: 3/29/2004

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

I'm sure nearly everyone is quite familiar with this passage. But, I question you why don't we (especially myself) truly live it? Although, there are multiple reasons that go into it, some harder to get over than others, I feel it's important to highlight a couple that we can consciously rid ourselves of (of course with the help of Christ and a willingness on our part).

Namely, I think that we view others with preconceived notions/expectations of things that happened in our past. For example, you may have been abused by someone you loved, your mom/dad could have walked out on you when you were young, that special someone you loved might have left you. Whatever the case, we let these "historical hurts" hinder us from really loving people. Sometimes we fear that if let our shield down, we are opening up the door for these things to happen again. We must not hold each other accountable for past hurts.

Secondly and most common, we expect others to love us First. It is here that I find perhaps my biggest struggle. We (for what seems like prideful issues to me) wait for others to notice us, talk to us, invite us, call us, be sympathetic to us, listen to us, and the list goes on and on. In essence, we choose to be kind to those who are kind to us. We get into this foolish game where we think it's all about us. It's not! Anyone can love those that love them, that's easy.

The challenge is this: loving those who are mean to you, rude to you, laugh at you for no reason, irritate you, choose to leave you out, talk bad about you behind your back, hurt you, etc... These are the people who really need to experience our love the most. It is these that we are called to love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. Here we see that it is God's will that we love others; without love nothing else matters. Let us be clear, love is much more than just a feeling, more than just saying, "I love you". On the contrary, it is choosing to live in loving ways (which are outlined in the opening verse, 1 Corinthians 12:4-7). This passage describes how God loves us. In hebrew, this love is referred to as egope love. We should also press on to show this kind of love.

No one (human) loves perfectly, but we must learn how to love as God does. We can ask God to help us love others and stop waiting for them to love us. Therefore, I strongly urge us to do just that; love (even more so among Christian brother/sisters). That's what we were made to do. "He (God) created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the things he planned for us long ago." (Ephesians 2:10b)

For I am nothing without HIM

Kenny B



1 John 4:7-21, special emphasizes on verses: 10, 16b, and 19

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