Keeping the Word of God
There is a time when we can lose focus as believers. We do things and say things with great intentions, but it completely overshoots the depth of the meaning of Christ's life. A woman, who it can be understood saw Christ's significance, once said to Jesus in Luke 11:27, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!" While trying to be respectful to Jesus and his mother, he corrects her. In verse 28 Jesus responds with "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" Are you keeping the word of God?
First, are you reading the Bible? Are you understanding what you are reading? I have heard people say that the love Jesus and are Christians, but then they follow that up with the Bible is misinterpreted and wrong and blah blah blah. But if the Bible is wrong then how do you know about Jesus? What is it that you know about him? Where did you learn that? If the source that educates you is flawed in your mind then your beliefs may be flawed as well. Read about Jesus in the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Read about why he did what he did. Understand him. But in order to do that, you have to read.
And second, are you keeping his commands. Yes there are the 10 commandments, but also the spirit of the 10 are condensed in Matthew 22:36-40. Love God first and then because you love God, you love people. This is not just love like a fluffy Valentine's Day love, but like I will sacrifice for someone I do not know kind of love the way you sacrifice for someone you do know. That kind of love is how you know if you have Christ working through you. Keep the word of God by reading it, understanding and accepting Christ and follow the spirit of the commands.
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What is Love?
This may be a topic I have done before, but you know what, it's important. So let's go over this...again.
We have heard this section of verses on love at wedding and I'm sure we have heard it in church when pastors discuss relationships be they friendship, dating or marriage. But when it comes to love, so often we think of the feeling of it. It is that flutter in your heart when you see them. It is that bond you feel when you talk to them and are around them. Sadly, love can come with conditions. "I love you as long as you do 'x' for me and make me feel like 'y.'" People love as long as they are treated a certain way. I'm here to tell you, if your love has an ending condition, that isn't love my friend. So, what is love?
Paul writes to the Corinthian Christians on what love is. You can apply this to Valentine's Day or just relationships. But you can also see this from God's perspective. God wants us to be loving. This section of text was in relation to spiritual gifts that without love are just loud clanging symbols. So, no matter what you do with your life, if you do not understand or reject God's love for you (us) and Christ's sacrifice then how will you know that love is patient, kind, is not envious nor boastful nor arrogant (1 Corinthians 13:4)? God is patient with us in our sins and is kind in bestowing talents to us to honor Him. We should not be envious of one another nor should we boast. When you envy another you forget what God gave you. And when you boast, you overwrite what God has done for someone else like your boasting and arrogance says you are superior.
Love is not rude. Love does not insist upon its own way. Love is not irritable or resentful (1 Corinthians 13:5). How many times are you rude to others or insist upon your own way? That is not being loving in those moments. Love does not allow for irritability or resentment. Being irritable is like being agitated with a little extra on it. We have seen resentment before. That feeling you have when someone does or says something hurtful and you hang on to that every time you see or think of them. It's like bitterness. Love does not give birth to these things.
Love does not rejoice in wrong doing but rejoices with the truth (1 Corinthians 13:6). The wrong doing is not done in love. If you do wrong that cannot be done in love. Rejoicing in the truth is a way to show love as well. God is truth. God's word is truth. We rejoice in Him and His word. That is love.
Lastly, we must know that love bears, believes, hopes and endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7-8). This does not mean that we believe everything we ever hear from anyone or any random source. We are believing in the best of others. We are being optimists. Love hopes for the best and endures the trying times of life. Love keeps you going even when that friend, significant other or person has done you wrong. Love keeps pushing through and does not allow for that person to become an enemy. Love has no end date.
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Christ-like Valentine
Valentine's Day is this weekend, Sunday to be exact. This is the time of year that we tell our significant others how much we love them and buy them roses and chocolates and dinners and gifts and really try to impress them. We tell them that we love them. All those things are wonderful and you should absolutely tell those that you love, that you love them. But what about a real focus for Christ followers? Does your significant other have Christ-like character? That is something that we Christ followers need to look at.
When you communicate with your significant other, when you see them walk through life, is their focus on being of the same mind as Jesus? If you read Philippians 2:5 we see that we are to have the same mind as Jesus. This take effort, but overall through grace from God, it takes submission to God's will. Jesus was completely sold out for God and died as it was in God's will so that we could be redeemed through Christ with God. Is your mate completely sold out for God's will? If you are a Christ follower ask yourself that question. But also ask yourself, am I sold out for God?
Remember when Jesus gave us a new commandment? Do you remember what it was? It was that we love others as he (Jesus) has loved us (John 13:34). This isn't about religion and all of that, this is about dedication to Christ and being loving to others. Others is everyone. Loving others as God would have us love them. That means remove the condemnation. Remove the denigration. Remove the bitterness. Remove the hate. Add unconditional love. Add grace. Add respect. Add Christ-likeness to cover it all. If you really want to know if they are the "one" check their character against that of Christ. Check your character against that of Christ. If you are united in Christ's love that is a great start to this Valentine's Day as well as many others.
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But Have Not Love
In verse 1 Paul starts off naming the spiritual gifts and calls out the lack of importance they have and how insignificant the person is without love in their hearts. Imagine you have the spiritual gift of wisdom or knowledge or speaking in tongues but you are just not a loving person. How wasteful would that be to have that gift and not be loving. The next thing we look at is how to define love.
If you have ever been to a wedding then you more than likely have heard 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. In these verses Paul uncovers what love is. He says it is patient and kind and does not boast and whole host of other descriptive terms. But if you read verse 8 you will see that love cannot fail. The verse reads "love never fails." If you love someone and you no longer love them, you never loved them. You may have loved the feeling of being around them. You may have loved how they made you feel, but did you actually love them? If you did, then it would not be past tense.Love doesn't end and it cannot fail.
The last verse is 1 Corinthians 13:13 points out three attributes- faith, hope and love. We might say that faith is the most important to have as in faith in God. Or maybe hope is the most important as in hope that God will answer prayers. But if there is no love of God and love for others, then what do the others matter? Paul says the greatest of those three is love and God shows this to us by having sent his son Jesus Christ to die for our sins.
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