April 15, 2010 (1 Corinthians 12-16)

Today's reading encompassed chapter 13 - the love chapter. Paul tells us the most important thing is love. It doesn't matter if our faith is so great we can move mountains, or if we knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, or if we sacrificed everything for the poor - all of that would mean nothing if we didn't love others. And here is what love is:

^13:4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. ⁶ It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Read through the list again. Think of Jesus admonishment to love our neighbors. How about instead of our neighbors, we start with our family? I think a lot of time it's easier to love our neighbor because we don't interact with them 24-7. And since God is love, this is how He loves us. He keeps no record of our wrongs. He never gives up on us. He never loses faith in us, because He has placed His Spirit within us to lead us to be able to endure through every circumstance. Thank you Father for Your unfailing love.

The Corinthians were getting all hung up in the people who brought them the message. That is our tendancy, I think, to think more highly of people than we should. We need to recognize that it really is not the people, but God working through them. He is the only one that should be praised. But although He is the One to be praised, He pours out His Spirit on us and expects us to allow Him to work through us:

^15:10 But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than all the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace. ¹¹ So it makes no difference whether I preach or they preach. The important thing is that you believed what we preached to you.

And then one final note of encouragement:

^15:58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lords' work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.