Love, Love, Love!!!

We are fresh out of celebrating Valentine's Day... the holiday of LOVE...

While we're out of the height of ooey-gooey, lovey-dovey stuff, it's a great time to ponder true love... the love our Savior has for us.

I Corinthians 13 is the gold standard in Scripture for defining love. I don't know the actual stats, but if I had to guess, I'd imagine that it is likely the most quoted Bible passage in weddings. Even weddings of non-believers. For some reason we just love to hear the definition of perfect ... love!

So let's take a minute to look at the "Love is..." section of that chapter:

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails.

Now let's do a little exercise with these verses. I wish I could take credit for this myself, but a speaker came to our church a while back and I'm just sharing the exercise he gave to us.

Read the passage aloud. Go ahead. Don't be embarrassed.

Now... everywhere you see "love" or the pronoun "it" referring to "love," substitute "Jesus." Read it aloud again that way.

4 Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind. Jesus does not envy, Jesus does not boast, Jesus is not proud.
5Jesus is not rude, Jesus is not self-seeking, Jesus is not easily angered, Jesus keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Jesus does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Jesus always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Jesus never fails.

Isn't is awesome that our Lord IS the standard of love. Makes sense, you know. I John 4:8 tells us that "...God is love."

Now let's do another little exercise. Re-read the passage again, only this time, put YOUR NAME where you said Jesus' name before:

4 _____ is patient. _____ is kind. _____ does not envy, _____ does not boast, _____ is not proud.
5_____ is not rude, _____is not self-seeking, _____is not easily angered, _____keeps no record of wrongs.
6_____ does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
7_____ always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8_____ never fails.

How'd that go for you? Did what you read accurately reflect your character? Yes? No?

I have to admit, I might manifest one or two of the wonderful characteristics of love, but I make a woefully low score on this love test. It's enough to make a girl really sad.

But then I realize that Jesus went to the cross ... out of love ... for me. And when He went there, paying for my sin with his life and then rising from the dead, defeating sin and death forever, He gave me His righteous robe to wear. Now THAT is LOVE!

Take a minute to praise God for His love and to ask Him to transform your "love life" so that you shine with the love of His precious Son.