All You Need Is Love

Click Here to Listen to and Read the Lessons fir Today’s One Year Bible Lessons 

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice 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. Love never fails.

Although this passage is usually read at weddings, Paul includes this teaching in the middle of his teaching on spiritual gifts in chapters 12 and 14. It is sandwiched between the two chapters  

Since Paul is addressing the prideful ways in which the Corinthians were using their gifts, especially the supernatural ones, he needed to remind them that it is not just what they were doing but also HOW and WHY! 

Paul states no matter how powerful or exciting a particular ministry was, if it was not done with love it was only a “noisy gong” or a “clanging symbol”.  Paul shows that “agape” or “sacrificial” love is not a feeling but an action.  You can give something to something to someone selfishly expecting something in return or some kind of adulation or credit, but that is not love  

Sometimes the greatest gift you can give someone is patience, kindness, or active and empathetic listening.  True love gives unselfishly, sacrificially, and it looks to the best interest of the person being loved.

It is the same love which God has given us in Christ Jesus.  Jesus loves us unconditionally. He proved how much he loves us by dying on the cross.  Our ability to love is in direct proportion to how we have realized and experienced Jesus love for us. We can only love because he loved us first.

This explains why a parent who has lost a son or daughter due to a drunk driver can eventually forgive them.  This explains how we can love even the “unloveables” and “unmentionables”  This is why Christians are moved to help widows, single moms or single dads, and those who are homeless.

The most important thing Paul says about this “agape love” is when he says, “Love never fails!” As we love others with the same kind of love Jesus gave us, our love will never fail. It will never fail to touch a human heart even if this is not realized right away.  

Who do you need to show this unfailing love to? Have you fully realized or experienced God’s love for you in Christ?  Some people never do.  They keep Jesus at arms’ length  They may go to church, read the bible, or pray, but they have never received God’s gracious love.

Jesus’ love never fails!  Receive it today!  Receive it right now!  



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