Monday, August 5 - 1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 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. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV)

LOVE

This passage, so commonly read at weddings, expresses the nature of God's love for us.  It is not based on his feelings, which so often must be hurt by our wrongful actions.   It is not based on circumstances, which fluctuate from day to day.  It is based solely on His decision to love us -- a decision which, on our behalf, took Him down the gritty and agonizing road to the cross.

One author, who writes about this and relates God's love to the way we should treat one another, pens the title, "Love is a Decision."  God's people are not called to reach out with conditional acceptance, but to the decision to love even when it's tough.  This is why Jesus can say, "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

This kind of love chooses to forgive, to be compassionate, to let go of malice because it knows that God first loved us with such commitment.

What person gets under your skin, irritates or angers you?  How are you called to love this person in Christ?