Have you ever approached Scripture by writing it out in a way that specifically applies it to your life? Some people have filled in their names in the place of love in 1 Corinthians 13 to check themselves: ” Am I acting in love?” This morning, I was led to check my heart by asking God to speak to me personally through the text, and I wanted to share my 2021 personal commentary notes, if you will, on the text of 1 Corinthians 13. I hope it blesses you!
If I say all the right things, and even if I can back up my stance with Scripture, but I don’t have love, I’m as annoying as tinnitus, or that loud toy that doesn’t shut off your crazy uncle gave your kid at Christmas.
If I understand how bad doctrine hurts people or if I can access all knowledge and piece together the gaps that people keep falling in; if I can see how God is moving and hear the strategies of heaven; if I can defend my faith with apologetics and fight the enemy’s frustrating my attempts to build bridges; if I can move the mountains of unbelief I face in my own life, but don’t use love to do the same for others, I’m no better than the dirt that lay breathless on the mountain I just moved into the sea.
If I sell my house, my guitars, my shoes, my belongings if I submit myself so much to something that I burn myself out completely but don’t have love, my sacrifices will produce nothing good, and they won’t really matter.
Love waits longer than it wants to.
Love expresses kindness in real ways.
Love doesn’t yield to emotions that cause discontentment, jealousy, or resentfulness.
Love doesn’t brag and show off pridefully in words or actions.
Love doesn’t raise its arms to look bigger than it is, and it doesn’t use fear and intimidation to control and manipulate others.
Love doesn’t use rude, abrupt remarks to bully or make people feel less than and insignificant.
Love doesn’t only look out for #1.
Love doesn’t fly off the handle quickly with reactive, unreasonable anger and meanness.
Love doesn’t feed on bitterness or drink the cup of irritation when life isn’t fair or when too many group messages come through in one hour.
Love isn’t glad when its rights are more solidified at the expense of another’s.
Love throws a party and is overwhelmed with joy when the truth is revealed and adhered to.
Love endures difficult circumstances and clings to the hope that things can still work out for something better. It holds fast in perseverance and remains standing when all the “fight” is over.
Love knows no end. It’s eternal. Efforts and works and prophecies and even rocking church services with perfect performances will all one day be set aside. Revivals and camps and everything we put our hands to will cease. But perfection is coming, and everything that’s partial will one day bow its knee to it.
I don’t know everything now, but I’m holding fast to love and am committed to growing in maturity until I fully know the One who fully knows and loves me. Faith, hope, and love will remain after everything else is over, after everything else is shaken, after everything else ceases. But the greatest of these is love.
