What Is God’s Perspective On Love? 1 Corinthians 13
Have you ever wondered what God’s perspective on love is? 1 Corinthians 13 gives us a very detailed explanation on what love is (and isn’t) to God.
What do you think love is? Contact us at HopeStreamRadio, or leave a comment below.
What Is Love?
Many HopeStreamRadio listeners and readers, live in countries that celebrate Valentine’s Day, a day to give that special someone chocolates and flowers and maybe even go out for dinner.
With that in mind, this month’s devotionals will focus on the topic of love and what it means from a biblical standpoint.
Let’s begin by reading the most famous chapter on love in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Did you catch that? Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love From God’s Perspective
This is love from God’s perspective. It’s more important than speaking the language of angels, prophesying, understanding all mysteries, having all knowledge, even giving our life. Amazing, isn’t it?
You can see why I often say we can’t obey the Lord unless His Holy Spirit enables us to do so. No matter how hard we try, we can’t muster up this kind of love.
It’s important to read God’s Word. It’s important to memorize it. But like it says in the book of James, there’s even more to it than that. In God’s strength, we must apply it. Let’s look at the attributes of true love and consider how we can do just that.
Love is patient.
If you’ve listened to these devotionals for a while now, you’ll know that the biblical word for “patience” used to be translated “longsuffering.” When a friend or family member does something irritating or hurtful, are we willing to graciously endure and seek to be reconciled?
Love is kind.
I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that kindness follows immediately after patience. It’s easy to be kind to someone who is treating us as we want to be treated, but what if they are doing something that tries our patience—repeatedly? We are still called to be kind.
Love does not envy or boast.
Do we rejoice when things go well for others, when they are acknowledged for their accomplishments, or do we seek to draw attention to ourselves?
Love is not arrogant or rude.
Of course, arrogance goes hand in hand with boasting. And here, the Lord links it to rudeness as well. It is right to rejoice in those things God enables us to accomplish, but we must humbly remember that He is the one who gave us the wherewithal to achieve whatever it was. He even gives us breath, not something we can ever take credit for.
Love doesn’t insist on getting its own way.
I think we can all think of times when we seek to manipulate our circumstances in order to get what we want. I know this is too often the case in my life. We must ask God to help us truly put other’s needs ahead of our own.
Love isn’t irritable or resentful.
This is an area in which I have seen God at work. I used to be both irritable and resentful on a regular basis. That is no longer the case and the Lord deserves all the glory.
Love doesn’t rejoice at wrongdoing.
It’s easy to think, “It doesn’t bring me joy when others do wrong,” but let’s take a careful look at ourselves. Do we ever do something contrary to God’s directives and find joy in it?
Check out HopeStreamRadio on Soundcloud
Love rejoices with the truth.
The Ultimate Truth is God and His Word. We must get to know the Lord better by prayerfully and thoughtfully studying the Scriptures.
Steph Nickel
Stephanie is a freelance writer and a contributor to our Christian internet radio station, HopeStreamRadio.
Read and hear more from Steph Nickel on the contributor’s page or at Steph Nickel’s Eclectic Interests.
Stephanie’s show, “Family Life Lessons,” airs from Monday to Friday on HopeStreamRadio.
More Blogs
Five Suggestions to Help us Find Time to Read
More Podcasts You May Enjoy:
Did You Get The Memo From Heaven?
Images courtesy of:
Children- strecosa
Motherhood- Unsplash
Old- Unsplash
Sisters- langll
Baby- PublicDomainPictures
Leave a Reply