True Love?

I am sharing from I Corinthians 13, a very familiar passage known as “the love chapter”. We read in verses 2 & 3 that if we don’t have charity (love) we are nothing!

“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” ~I Corinthians 13:2&3~

It doesn’t matter what we do, if we do it without love it profits nothing! We then read about the different characteristics of love in verses 4-8,

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,  Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;  Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.”

We see, in these verses, the true meaning of love. The world portrays love as “What can I GET from this relationship?” while true love is “What can I GIVE to this relationship?” Finally, in verse 11, we see this conclusion,

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

In any relationship, have we really grown up in how we love others, or do we still show childlike, babyish signs of being impatient, selfish, unkind, proud, quick-tempered…etc.? Remember, we’ll find genuine love in the person who makes it his goal to always serve others! We find the ultimate example of this in John 3:16,

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

~ Bethany ~