With Valentine's Day around the corner, I thought this was particularly appropriate.
Bren talked about this in his vlog today (Chapter 101, which will post in a few minutes), about the challenge of truly loving everyone you meet. Everyone. From my adorable husband to my annoying landlord, from my friends to my foes, to a political figure I adore to one I think very little of, from the person who treated me with unspeakable kindness, to someone who treated me with unspeakable hatred. I am charged with loving them both. It is one of the central tenets of what Jesus told us to do, and I am so crappy at it!
So, following Bren's challenge this morning, I am going to try to live with this verse in my memory today. Let me know if you are doing it too!
1 Corinthians, Chapter 13 (The Message)
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
-x-
aarti
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3 comments:
you can do it! it's a challenge...i think the beauty in jesus' teachings is that he understood we are imperfect and learning and trying while we are here on earth...it helps me to remember when i look at anyone no matter how they are making me feel that they are a part of god...just like me...hopefully trying the best they can...and if they aren't trying...then bless them anyway with loving thoughts.
love is an action not a feeling... someone told me that the other day.
I am not usually a big fan of The Message but this version is really beautiful!
Jesus calls us (commands us)to moral perfection. We must obey His Law (the 10 commandments). The Savior said: "Be perfect as I am perfect".(Matthew 5:48) But the secret of the Christian life is that in order to be perfect, we have to turn from our self & our sin (repent), trust in Christ & He saves us. With salvation He imputes His righteousness (perfection) by grace to us. So, the solution is to turn away from ourselves & from our sin to Christ Himself. The unspeakably lovely language of I Corinthians 13 is divine enticement to look to the Lord, the only One Who can make us pure & full of genuine love from the inside out.
What a precious way to compel us to come to Him, our Creator & Sustainer!
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