1 Corinthians 13

In my previous post I spoke about the importance of having the love of God through Christ be are only motivation for all we do, thus owning that perfect and pure love for others. Now what is that love and what does that love truly demand? I will base all I am about to say on the scripture and allow the Holy Spirit to lead me in love as I begin to examine the chapter further.

In verses four, the verse makes reference of the following descriptive qualities of this love:

·        Patience

·        kindness

·        void of envy

·        void of boasting

·        and void or arrogance

Now taking note of the first quality dependent on the version you may be reading, patient love, long suffering kind of love; it reflects a quality we as humans, myself included lack at times. Now the quality of the good and positive long suffering love is not the one where you are in an abusive relationship where your soul and body are constantly being destroyed. I do not believe that is the kind of long suffering the scripture is referring to, because all things in the body of Christ are meant to produce the fruits which are to aid us to become the people God intended for us to be and not destroy within us the people God is making us become each day through our walk with Him. That patience and long suffering love expressed here, I believe is the kind where you understand that the people around you are just like you, flawed and imperfect on their own and are a canvas God is still working through in order to create the image of Him in them. So, keeping that in mind we understand that they will not always get it right and may fail us at times and we need that patient quality of love to not give up on a soul.

 After becoming a parent myself I found myself over the years developing this love, in understanding that kids are a precious human form of a spiritual test. The reason being that children will surely test your patience and at times you need to be soaked in God enough to say: “God please allow me to handle this situation in faith rather than irritation”. As kids develop and explore you need to repeat yourself, constantly and with love, because they are not just your kids, but kids of the Lord and as we direct and correct them we need to remember not to break and destroy them. Now that would require a huge portion of God given patience, especially when you have not slept and are at the point of breakage. There are a lot of examples of how this patient kind of love can be expressed in a healthy way in our daily lives towards our spouses, families, children, co-workers friends and strangers; especially towards those we do not know and are getting better acquainted to. This in perfect biblical sequence then leads directly to the next quality of love which is kindness; now kindness for me is like that sprinkle of water upon a dry and thirsty ground, which the souls of mankind usually are. We can sometimes go through life, bouncing from trail to trail and that compassion coming from love can be that little light that someone needs in order to break through a dark point in their life. Now in my own personal life I have had those moments, which my life was a desert and my soul a dry land, where I can attest that kindness in the form of words, action in love can be that drop one needs to get up and battle death. We can express this quality by simply smiling in love at a person and make them feel the love of God in us and thus give them courage. This is an important love quality needed by babies to grannies; everybody needs that gentleness and silent quality of love found within kindness.

 The next qualities of love stated in the verse are not being envious, boastful and arrogant. Having begun the verse by expressing patience and kindness it exposes qualities which are undesirable and we sometimes possess as part of our human nature.  When the scripture mentions not being envious I believe that it is talking about the coveting kind of envy where you want the praise and the attention, and refuse to allow or want someone else to prosper (and not the envy where God says: “I am a jealous God…” found in Exodus 20:5, where God is speaking about having no other gods.). Now I believe that when you love someone and that love is good and healthy, you rejoice when they excel in life especially in Christ. Now if envy starts to creep in there and you start wishing and wanting specific blessing God has blessed someone else with to be yours, that right there is a praying moment for God’s good and perfect love is not at work. That right there is a self-introspection moment because you are losing focus and not loving as you should; because we need to be feeling and articulating emotions which are not of a dark nature which revolve around us. The other red flag of “Am I walking in love?” moments, will be the boasting, now there is nothing wrong in being joyful for an achievement, but there is that thin line where you are sticking it to a person, for a lack of a word. This is a terrible quality because your intentions behind it are not the glory of God, where you seek to express “this is what God has done for me”, rather than “look at me, and look at you”, kind of negative atmosphere. We are to express love and shine off so much of it that even in our development is about God and not making others feel less human, less loved and less accomplished. I feel that is the thin line between being boastful and arrogant, and expressing gratitude to God for all He has done in your life. The one is: “look at me, my life is better than yours.”, while the other is: “Look at what God has done and is doing  in my life, and imagine what He can do for yours”. Knowing the difference and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us in love will be the difference between good and healthy love towards others, and simply expressing the dark qualities of love.

Let the Love of God through Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit set the standard.