Love - The 1st Fruit of the Spirit
The Dictionary defines the word “love” as, “an intense feeling of deep affection.”
The Bible in 1st Corinthians 13:4-8 has a different definition. It says, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
You may ask, "What does that passage of scripture mean?"
Love suffers long and is kind – take a look at Jesus the way that he lived his life as an example for each one of us. Jesus was sought after from birth to be destroyed. He was viewed as being different, mocked or made fun of, lied on and accused, many times being setup by people that were simply intrigued by him. They didn’t understand him, his words, his actions, and even at times, his inactions. He was setup by people trying to test him and trap him in various situations. Even leading up to his death, was abandoned and betrayed by those that walked with him daily, that claimed to be with him. They said they were down for the cause, but when the time came for them to stand with him and for him, they ran, they him, even betrayed him for money, and Jesus saw all of these things, but still he loved us so that he didn’t stop when we as people, acted out against him, lied on him, and denied him. He suffered long and in many cases his love still suffers the lack of our true love in return, but still he is kind
Love does not envy, love does not parade itself, it is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own – I’ve read nothing in the Bible that tells of Jesus being envious of John the Baptist, the one who preached of his coming. I’ve read nothing in the Bible that tells of Jesus being puffed up or requiring “fan fair” or praise of himself, but he often referenced his Father in heaven, giving honor where honor is due. I’ve not read in the Bible where Jesus was behaving rudely or in sheer arrogance. But, often times we are envious of our own parents, spouses, sisters and brothers, members of our congregation, co-workers, and even of leaders in the church. We tend to parade ourselves through and round about as if to say look what I have done, see the works of my hand. We tend to speak down to those we don’t consider to be on our level, carrying ourselves in a rude manner.
Love is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth – Jesus did not purposely provoke people with intentions to do evil. He did not rejoice in the sin and the troubles of others. We all know that at some point in time, we’ve done or said something to try to “push someone’s buttons”, right? At times those things that we are doing or saying are trying to get a rise out of them, make them angry or make them react. And sometimes, once we have accomplished that, we then, sit back and judge or criticize them for what they have said or done.
I want you to ask yourself, have I ever said “that’s what you get!” after someone does something wrong, says something wrong, or doesn’t do what you see or feel is right? You’ve either done it or seen it happen, well, they got or they getting what they deserve because of this or that… (sounds like rejoicing in someone’s sin or trouble to me), but who am I….
Jesus did work to establish the truth, to spread the Gospel, to show love and kindness to his fellow man; crossing ethnic, educational, financial, and other barriers along the way to bring the truth of the Lord God almighty to the people.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things – Jesus bears a lot of blame because he loves us…Let’s just be real, we do and say a lot that is not like God, we carry ourselves in wishy washy ways depending on whether or not God has answered our prayers. We have no tolerance in wishy washy folks when it comes to us having to deal with or love them. We drop them without much hesitancy and in some cases refuse them when they come back, even to apologize for their actions. Love believe all things, hopes all things, endures all things…we don’t believe half of the stuff we ask the God that we claim to love to do for us, we don’t keep that hope alive as we should in him, ourselves, or in others that God can still reach them no matter where they are or what they have done. And we certainly don’t want to endure nothing…we want to reap our rewards always, dance in the sunshine, and accept all of our blessings without hardships, without tears, without rain.
Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
The love of Jesus, the Love of God, never fails. Prophecies, the words we wait for the pastor or preacher to drop on us telling us of what God is going to do for us will fail…the tongues will cease, but the love of God will never fail.