“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
If you are anything like me, you’ve probably heard this verse hundreds of times in your life. I bet just now you read the beginning of it and then skipped to this paragraph because you already knew what it said…thats right. Caught. Between weddings, lectures from your parents, and posters at school, it’s everywhere. Sometimes “popular” verses like this one can lose their effect just from the amount of times we’ve heard them. We become numb to their weight. But recently, the Lord has reminded me that the Bible is more than just memorization, its about putting it into practice. I met a pastor this past summer who said it perfectly: “do the Bible”. In this passage, Paul perfectly outlines what it practically means to love like Jesus did. I’ve been trying to put these traits into real life aspects since I have been on the race. I decided it was time to do the Bible one characteristics at a time:
Love is patient and kind.
With 53 people in one house, its easy to become impatient over small things like the dinner line or early alarms or even the quiet hours. But I have been trying to remember that a huge way to love my squad and roommates is through patience. Not everything is going to go my way, and that is okay. I can choose to show unending kindness and patience even if it is not always reciprocated. At my ministry its even easier to become impatient when putting the kids down for their naps each day. I have to sit there and rub their backs for 2 hours; talk about a test of patience. Its not the most exciting task, and becomes difficult when they just wont go to sleep. But I’ve learned to grow in patience and see the beauty in spending a couple hours loving them in the simplest way imaginable.
Love does not envy or boast.
Learning to love without envy is so hard. Its much easier to compare my full day of ministry to other teams with half a day, and wish I just had a couple more hours of free time. Or just the opposite of that, boast about all that we are doing to teams who have less of an opportunity. But I am reminded that if I am to really love them well, I can’t be jealous of their situations or think that mine is superior. Jealously and boasting destroy relationships.
It is not arrogant or rude; It does not insist on its own way.
I am not always right. I am going to be wrong…a lot, and I shouldn’t always have to insist that my way is the best way. On the race there are countless group decisions, such as planning ministry activities, how to organize rooms, and even how to spend team food money. If I really love my teammates and squad I should never discourage them from doing something differently than I would. Compromising is a great way to love simply.
It is not irritable or resentful
I think this is one of the hardest things for me to remember. Irritability and resentment come so naturally in the fallen world. We have things that just annoy us, and things that are hard to look past. I have been learning to love people for who they are, a child of God, rather than what they do. No one deserves to be treated badly just because its 6:00 AM and they should know not to bother you this early, or you are just having a bad day. Real love goes beyond feelings and overcomes any wrong the person has committed against you. This doesn’t mean being passive and holding everything in until you explode, it means truly forgiving each person.
It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth
This one seems obvious and easy, but I can think back to many times I’ve subconsciously rejoiced at wrongdoing. You know, when that one person who is driving you crazy, finally gets what they “deserve”. It’s terrible, but again, we’ve all done it. I’ve had to learn to give that up. No matter what a person has done or how difficult they may seem, I should only be happy when they live out truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
I recently got a new bible to take on the race, and the translation is different than my previous bibles. I have never seen (or maybe just paid attention) to the end of this verse, “love never ends”. I’ve only seen it as “love never fails”. So for me, this meant love conquers all. It never fails when it comes up against the problems of the world. But this translation took on a whole new meaning for me. Love never ends. Wow. I will never get to a point where I can stop loving someone. I cant reach a love limit, whether I am giving it out or receiving it. I should never stop fiercely loving people.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 isn’t just an instruction manual for how to love each other, but it is a description of how God loves us today. In fact, you can exchange the word love in each sentence for God, because he is love. God is patient and kind. He does not envy or boast…God rejoices with the truth. He is all of these things and more. He is patient when we just can’t learn from our mistakes. He is Kind and gentle. He will never resent us for what we’ve done. There is never a selfish ambition in his heart, and he is always working things out for our best interest. He doesn’t rejoice when we make a mistake and is never out to get us. He is so good, and he loves us so deeply. That is incredible, but again only the beginning of what his love is. We don’t even have the imagination or vocabulary to put his love into words. Just feel the weight of that…This passage gives us a small glimpse into Gods love for each one of us, and one day when we are in heaven with him, we will see his love fully. I cant wait for that.
Thanks for reading 🙂
