Are you a patient person? Do you show kindness to others? Are you envious of others? Do you boast about your accomplishments? Are you arrogant? Do you insist on getting your way? Are regularly irritable? Are you resentful? Do you celebrate wrongdoing or truth?
Most of us like to think of ourselves as good people. We want to be good people. But what do others think us? Others may have a different perspective on us. We may not know how others view us if we do not ask. This is especially true if their opinion of us is negative.
Today’s passage provides us a list of what love is and what it is not. If we want to show the love of God, we need to study this passage, memorize it, and evaluate our motives and actions constantly. We also need a handful of people who we can trust to be open and honest with us. People who will let us know we are not showing the love of God.
Please understand, none of us will do this perfectly. Yet, many in our world today are not showing the love of God near enough. The moment something doesn’t go our way, we become irritable and maybe resentful. We see many rejoicing over wrongdoing, including spewing hateful speech at others, disobeying directives, destroying property, and more. Are you one of them?
Showing the love of God means we are patient with those who are different or have a different opinion. It means being kind, even when we want to retaliate. It means we do not boast about our accomplishments. It means we rejoice in the truth, while presenting the truth with patience, kindness, and humility. Learning to show the love of God is not for the faint of heart. It requires strength and courage. We should ask God to guide us in the right path.
I pray we all seek to show the love of God to others. I pray we read, memorize, and understand this definition of love. I pray each one of us ask God to guide us in showing his love to all we meet. Seek to show God’s love. Know and understand what God’s love is. Ask God to help you show his love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Marty Pressey 