1 Corinthians 13:1-7

Here's a thought: God is love. Actually, it's more than a thought. It's truth. Read 1 John 4:8 if you don't believe me.

I read 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 recently. Probably for the millionth time. And really, who hasn't at least heard this stuff at weddings? But guess what? Turns out the Bible is the living and active word of God (Hebrews 4:12). Even though I've heard it over and over and over, it can still speak to me in new ways. One of my favorite experiences is when I think I've learned everything there is to learn about a part of scripture, and then God shows me how wrong I am.

So anyways, as I was reading it, I had a thought: if God IS love, and love is all of the things listed in 1 Corinthians 13, then this gives us another little picture of part of God's character.

According to this passage, love is patient, kind, rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things...and as if that weren't enough, it never fails. True love does not commit the sins of envy, boastfulness, arrogance, rudeness, selfishness, irritableness, rudeness, or rejoicing in wrongdoing. So since God is love, then it follows that God has all of these qualities. How awesome is it that even though we fail so often at exhibiting these characteristics of God, He never has and never will?

I decided that it's my goal to memorize this chapter. It's important to know what it means to truly love others. After all...faith, hope, and love remain. "But the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Someone once told me that to find out how well you're loving others, you can take 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 and replace "love" with your name and then evaluate how true those statements are of yourself. You're not done growing in your ability to love until you never fail to be all of these things.