The Daily Word

 

We now are starting to look at the positive aspects of love in 1 Corinthians 13. This is perhaps where we should focus and compare our own behaviour to that which Paul documents and which, if we are honest, we all agree that we really should show in our lives. However, without the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, we will struggle to consistently achieve.

“Love is patient, love is kind”. Two sides of the same coin, one concerned with perhaps enduring hardship or unjust criticism from others and not reacting. And the other reaching out to the same person with a positive and helpful attitude. This mirrors the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, where He talks about how we should react to our enemies and those who are cruel to us. The purely human approach is to retaliate because the world attitude is ‘Don’t be soft’. That is what the world sees to be the right approach to bad treatment.

Perhaps you say to me, “that is OK for you to say, but you don’t know what I have to put up with”. You are right, I don’t know, but if we claim to be followers of Jesus, then we have to look at His behaviour when treated unjustly. We have to look at the times when he had completed a full day of ministry and travelling and yet people with needs would still come to Him and He responded with kindness.

We will never match His qualities, but unbelievers and our unchurched friends should be able to see these two qualities in our lives, else how are we going to attract them to our Saviour? But to reiterate, we can only demonstrate these consistently if we ourselves are living our lives in Christ. So let us look at our relationship with Him first before we attempt to live out these aspects of love.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church