The love portion of 1 Corinthians 13 (Love is patient, love is kind…..) is probably familiar to most of us. We have probably all heard sermons about it at weddings. I know for myself that it is one of those passages that I know so well from songs and Sunday School that when I come to it in the Bible or hear it in church I naturally just skim over it. It is a good passage for weddings because any committed loving relationship will need that kind of love to last but the context that it is given in is for the church. It is how we are supposed to treat each other. It is not about romance. It is about us committing to love everyone.
This week I was doing a Bible study on “Speaking the truth in love”. As the discussion went along I felt led to turn to 1 Cor. 13. We read through the passage one line at a time. We asked the question how does each aspect of love help us understand how we are supposed to speak the truth to each other.
We are called to love. We are called to speak the truth in love. We are to love our neighbour. We are called to love our enemies. We want Christian Horizons to be known for love. We should love those we serve.
I challenge you to take one of the above statements and read through the passage one line at a time and let God speak to you.
Here it is. My own thoughts on one of the statements are below.
Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres.
Love is patient, Do I need to address this right now? If I have already spoken to them about this I may need to wait and give them a chance to change.
love is kind. I need to choose my words carefully.
It does not envy, is the real reason this bothers me - jealousy. Does it bother me that they are getting away with something I can’t?
it does not boast, am I using this to show that I am somehow better then them?
it is not proud. Does this make me feel as if I AM better than them?
It is not rude, Do I make jokes or deal with it harshly?
it is not self-seeking, why am I addressing this? Is it for my benefit or theirs?
it is not easily angered, If someone close to me did the same thing would I let it go or would I react this way?
it keeps no record of wrongs. Am I really addressing this current problem or is this just an excuse to bring something up with someone I have a laundry list of complaints from the past about?
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. If I am happy that they have done wrong so that I will get to correct them I am probably not the best person to do it.
It always protects, Is my goal to make them stronger or to tear them down?
always trusts, Am I assuming the best of them?
always hopes, Do I go in thinking that talking to them will do no good?
always perseveres. Am I committed to seeing this through? Am I committed to loving this person?
Those are just my thoughts. Please feel free to share yours.
Mark Wallace
This week I was doing a Bible study on “Speaking the truth in love”. As the discussion went along I felt led to turn to 1 Cor. 13. We read through the passage one line at a time. We asked the question how does each aspect of love help us understand how we are supposed to speak the truth to each other.
We are called to love. We are called to speak the truth in love. We are to love our neighbour. We are called to love our enemies. We want Christian Horizons to be known for love. We should love those we serve.
I challenge you to take one of the above statements and read through the passage one line at a time and let God speak to you.
Here it is. My own thoughts on one of the statements are below.
Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres.
Love is patient, Do I need to address this right now? If I have already spoken to them about this I may need to wait and give them a chance to change.
love is kind. I need to choose my words carefully.
It does not envy, is the real reason this bothers me - jealousy. Does it bother me that they are getting away with something I can’t?
it does not boast, am I using this to show that I am somehow better then them?
it is not proud. Does this make me feel as if I AM better than them?
It is not rude, Do I make jokes or deal with it harshly?
it is not self-seeking, why am I addressing this? Is it for my benefit or theirs?
it is not easily angered, If someone close to me did the same thing would I let it go or would I react this way?
it keeps no record of wrongs. Am I really addressing this current problem or is this just an excuse to bring something up with someone I have a laundry list of complaints from the past about?
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. If I am happy that they have done wrong so that I will get to correct them I am probably not the best person to do it.
It always protects, Is my goal to make them stronger or to tear them down?
always trusts, Am I assuming the best of them?
always hopes, Do I go in thinking that talking to them will do no good?
always perseveres. Am I committed to seeing this through? Am I committed to loving this person?
Those are just my thoughts. Please feel free to share yours.
Mark Wallace
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