Dave’s Monday Blast – May 21, 2018
Last week we were chatting about the incredible, powerful force of love. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Paul uses character traits and actions to describe love. He is not saying we must feel love for everyone but that we are to live in such a way that God’s love fills us and overflows to others. What does this love look like? (By the way I strongly recommend you read Bob Goff’s books, Love Does and Everyone Always).
Four Thoughts from Charles Stanley:
1. Love is considerate. It’s patient and kind (v. 4). We are imperfect persons who live among imperfect people, and sometimes the result is frustration, irritation, impatience, and anger. But when we display agape love, we’re willing to bear with the annoying traits and behaviors of others and treat them kindly even if they mistreat us.
2. Christlike love is unselfish. In (vv. 4-5), Paul lists attitudes and actions that flow from selfishness and are not compatible with genuine love…jealousy, arrogance, unbecoming or crude behavior, seeking one’s own rights, being easily provoked to anger, holding grudges, and being unforgiving. All these are rooted in selfish interest and a sense of self-importance. The offenses, injuries, and injustices of others become cause for outbursts of anger, acts of retaliation, and sinful words and actions. Such behavior demonstrates that the person is controlled by selfish passions and desires, not by the Holy Spirit.
3. Genuine love is discerning. It “does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth” (v. 6). Our world has redefined love as showing acceptance and support for others’ choice of behavior, but this is not at all how God’s Word describes love. Paul prayed for the Philippians that their “love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment” (Philippians 1:9). To affirm someone’s sinful lifestyle and choices is not doing what is best for them, and is therefore not an act of love. Truth and love are not in opposition but in perfect unity.
4. Godly love endures. In a day when people are quick to give up on relationship if they become difficult, biblical love stands firm. It bears, hopes, and endures all things (v. 7). Suffering, hardships, and trouble can’t overpower love when it’s flowing from God. It bears up under injustice and refuses to delight in or gossip about the sins of others (1 Peter 4:8). No matter how bad circumstances may look, agape love is grounded by faith and rooted in hope.
INTENTIONAL men know it is impossible to love like this in their own strength! What Paul is really describing is a person whose life is totally surrendered to Christ. For people like this, their hope is not in getting what they want but in being who God wants them to be.
Sometimes we get the process turned around. We try so hard to love others but keep failing because love is a fruit of the Spirit. As we surrender to Him in obedience, He produces the love, and like branches bearing fruit, we simply put it on display as His life flows through us.
