Love as HE loved...

Love, a word that has so little meaning for some, and so much sense for others. For some, "love" is reduced to merely a feeling, to others is a verb, to others it means absolutely nothing, as they never truly experienced what love means.

For me, LOVE means self giving, acceptance, trust, security, affection. For God, it meant the supreme sacrifice, His Only Son.

I was reading 1Corinthians 13, 'The chapter of love', we all know it, and we all read it. I realized that this chapter is a chapter you hear talking from at weddings. I remember when I was younger, every time I used to like a boy a lot, I used to go to the Bible and read 1 Corinthians 13. I didn't understand the depth of the words written there,but I knew that's where the Bible talks about love.

Most of the preachings I heard preached from this chapter were at weddings. We are tought, indirectly, that this chapter is applied to marriage only.

I believe the time is NOW, when we have to enlarge our vision, see beyond what we were tought. Jesus said that the greatest command it is 'to love your neighbor as He loved us'. It's time to take the Bible out and read  again 1 Corinthians 13, because, I believe we should read it in relation to all people, we were called to love all people.

We tried to romanticize this chapter and attribute it to certain areas of our lives only, and sometimes not even to our own lives, as it is easier to see the wrong of the other person. But this chapter is nothing about romanticism, it doesn't talk about dates and roses and candles. It talks about hard work, it talks about humbleness, it talks about believing the best in the other person, it talks about selflessness.

This chapter is put between two very important chapters, one chapter that talk about the body of Christ (the church), and another one that talks about the gifts that we are given from God. But in the middle Paul decided, I believe inspired by God, to speak about LOVE. Why? Because you can be the 'perfect christian', having the greatest gift, and if your motivation is not love, if you do all this, but not out of love it's all equal to zero.

We are called to love, not just our spouse, or family, or friends. We are called to love all people as He loves us. How did He loved me? Dying for me, bearing all my sins, shame, weakness. How does He love me? Believing the best of me at all times, seeing beyond what I am now, forgiving me everytime I do something wrong, having the greatest patience with me, as I fall over and over again. How does He love me? Waiting with his arms open for me to come back, everytime I go away and hurt Him; holding me in my weaknesses. That's just a very very small part of how much He loves me. And I am called to love everyone like that.

I challenge you to read 1 Corinthians 13 one more time (written below), and read every word, knowing that you are suppose to do what Paul urges us to in this chapter, to all people.

Be blessed and be a blessing.

Love Is the Greatest

  If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.  If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.