Rethinking, rewording 1 Corinthians 13: Love is what we need!
By Dean Collins
Here’s my attempt to describe the “love chapter“ with different words so that I don’t just skim Paul’s familiar and powerful message to us. Read this and then read 1 Corinthians 13 and ask God to help you love others as he loves you.
If I have a spiritual gift but I do not love others while using it or when not using it, then I’m a noisy interruption to whatever is going on.
I could have great communication skills and wonderful insights from the Bible and more faith than it appears others possess. But if I don’t use this communication, teaching, and preaching to display the love of God or I am not loving when I’m not on stage, I’m basically an empty shell with not much to offer.
If I have a boatload of money and stuff and I give it away randomly and without purposes that are motivated by love and I’m not loving when I’m not doling out cash, it’s not enough. Even if I act like I am so sacrificial and sometimes give to the point it creates some discomfort, but I’m not loving to others and motivated by love when I give, it really has no benefit.
Here is the truth, and sometimes truth is hard to hear. Love according to God’s example and desire demonstrates patience in dealing with others and is kind. Someone motivated by and transformed by the love of God is never resentful of what others have and also never brags about what they have that others don’t possess.
What love is NOT
Loving Christ-followers do not act arrogantly, and they aren’t rude to others—others they know or others they don’t know. How they lovingly treat others should be the same whether people are watching or not. And loving people never say or act as if getting their way is the key to their relationships. We never tell others it’s our way or the highway.
When we are motivated by and filled with Christ’s love, we can’t walk around being irritated by others or being resentful because someone else got the promotion, the better marriage, or the nicer car.
A person who loves as Jesus demonstrated doesn’t celebrate when someone does wrong. They rejoice when someone is truthful and does the right thing, even if that right thing is done by a competitor or someone of a different political party.
Loving Christ-followers remain loving in good times and bad times. They don’t allow circumstances to determine whether others are treated with respect and kindness. A loving person remains hopeful and always believes the best is possible, because God’s love motivates them. The loving person never gives up hope and hangs in there in tough seasons. Loving people know that since God never ends, love also never ends. So they love until their last breath this side of Heaven.
Love—for now, and forever
Great preaching and great insights about tomorrow eventually end. Speaking other languages and or speaking in the language that only the Holy Spirit understands also ends one day. The truth is no one knows everything. The best we have is some of the information. Many of us with some of the information write and talk as if we know everything. When Jesus finally reveals the whole and complete restoration at his return, we will see how little we understood.
When we were kids and later adolescents we acted consistently with our developmental stages. That means we were often selfish, cocky, misinformed, yet very sure we knew everything or at least more than the older generation. But when we grow up, if things run their normal course, we realize how little we know. Even someone who gets their Ph.D. knows their knowledge is limited.
Right now our clarity is about as good as looking in a foggy mirror, but one day we will have clear vision and perfect understanding when we come face-to-face with Jesus. For now, let’s just admit we know only part of the situation. Later in eternity we will know better and know more.
So let’s hang on to what we have and embrace our faith, be filled with hope, and hang on to loving as Jesus loved. And be assured that the best thing a Christ-follower can do now is to love others. It’s the true and best thing we will ever do.
Your time with God’s Word
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV
Photo by Leighann Blackwood on Unsplash
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