Love the Christian way
The apostle Paul writing on love states,
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”1 Corinthians 13:1-3.
Love is the key to a Christian life. Love is what motivated God to send Jesus into this world. Perhaps the best known verse in the Bible is in the Gospel of John where Jesus is quoted, talking about himself and saying,
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16,17.
True love can be costly. After all it cost Jesus His life. The apostle Paul telling us,
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 5:8.
The Apostle Paul also defines Christian love this way.
“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....
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13.
Loving according the Paul’s definition is difficult and we all fall short from time to time. Still it is to this definition we as true believers in Christ Jesus must live up to.
Is the kind of love you show to others in line with this definition of love?
Please think about it.
