God has been teaching me alot about LOVE through community and my meditation on the scripture in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 ” 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 never fails. ”
Its crazy how Gods LOVE is all of these things – not just one or the other, not just the one he feels like at that moment, not based on how he feels towards us because of what we have or haven’t done. Its a perfect, all encompassing, unconditional LOVE that only someone that was and is the perfect example of a human being and more can demonstrate. A LOVE that we can only strive to demonstrate in our closest relationships, yet alone our simple aquaintanceS or the random person we meet on the street. But we are called to be more like Christ. Jesus was the example that we are given to strive to be like. He walked, breathed and lived this LOVE as a human while on the earth. If we even just attempt to demonstrate this type of LOVE we will see a significant difference in our relationships. I can make this statement with boldness because I’ve seen it.
I have been living in community, closely, with 5 other people for 6 months now. Sleeping in close quarters, sharing tiny bathrooms, doing ministry together, walking through brokenness together, being sick together, facing conflict together. And let me tell you the first couple of months were HARD! and I kept saying “God how the heck will I last this year living in this tight of community?” God kept speaking “love.” It wasn’t until I came into realization that God wasn’t talking of the fluffy flowers and chocolate type LOVE, but he was talking of the 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 type of LOVE, that I knew I had to change some things for me to last the year.
I began to meditate on this passage. It was not an over night change and I am still absolutely nowhere close to demonstrating this type of LOVE in full, in any of my relationships. I am now very aware of what it is suppossed to look like. I can catch myself when I am not demonstrationg this LOVE, but I can also catch myself when I am. The significant difference it has made in my outlook on my relationship with my team and even the actual physical relationship I have with them is astounding. When I give my team feedback or they give me feedback I know and they know it is out of this deep kind of LOVE. A LOVE that sees us how God sees us. A LOVE that can only come from God living in me and in them and knowing that he has shown us this LOVE with absolutely no conditions. So how can I possibly put conditions on the LOVE I show my team. But it goes so much further than this. It needs to outpour into my family, my friends, the people I am ministering to, and even my enemies. Matthew 5:44 “But I tell you: LOVE your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,”
So LOVE needs to be the reason I (YOU) do things, not just the ” I LOVE you” as I run out the door or hang up the phone. This is going to take a deeper understanding of God’s great LOVE and a constant desire to live this out in our everyday lives. I believe the only place we can get these two things is from God himself. So I am seeking Gods help to LOVE others as He LOVES me. 1 John 4:9-11 “This is how God showed his LOVE amoung us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is LOVE: not that we loved God, but that he LOVED us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so LOVED us, we also ought to LOVE one another.”
