Scripture:
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
Reading:
“Don’t talk about my friend that way.”
I was shocked. It took me a moment to realize my coffee companion was referring to what I was saying about myself. We do that at times, don’t we? With impatience, we speak unkindly and with resentment about ourselves. We forget to love ourselves like God.
How does God love us? He consistently and constantly loves like a champion father. Consider when a toddler is learning to walk or a child is learning to ride a bike, what does a great father do? He loves. He is patient and kind, not rude or irritable. He rejoices with the child’s attempt, protecting, believing, and hoping for what is to come. And he does not quit.
That is love.
That is the difference between human love and God’s love. We cannot love ourselves or our neighbors like God – consistently and constantly – without His Holy Spirit.
Everyone’s personal history has failed attempts to love well because we tend to rely on our own nature. Our own nature is far from holy, and if we follow our flesh, it will lead us through life with a limp.
That is why Christ gave you the Holy Spirit as your Helper when you placed your trust in Him as Savior. He also gave us a new commandment.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34)
How has Jesus loved you? Consistently and constantly. Patiently and kindly. He is not arrogant or rude. He does not even insist on His own way in your life. He rejoices over you because you have received Him as Lord. He covers you with Himself, believes, hopes, and endures with you.
When you tell your mind the truth about God’s love for you, it transforms your heart to genuinely love God, yourself, and others. This “faith working through love” is how we come to “love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:6; 13-14) Receiving God’s love for you and expressing that to others is truly what matters.
Application:
The first word God, who is love, uses to describe Himself is patient, then kind. (1 Cor. 13:4) How has God been patient and kind toward you? Allow this truth to convert your heart to patience and kindness toward yourself and others.
Love is not tolerance for error, but rather “rejoices in the truth.” (1 Cor. 13:6) Do not tolerate unloving thoughts. Instead, share with God what is bothering you. Ask to see it in the light of His loving character and conduct.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You for loving me. I pray to love with the patience and kindness of Jesus. Help me to celebrate Your grace to others and be content with the grace You have given to me. Please deliver me from envying, boasting, arrogance, and rudeness. Please mark my life with Your love, God. In Christ I pray. Amen.