I have had the privilege to have been mentored and discipled by some incredible men of God. The world would probably say these men aren’t great men, but these men who were willing to sink their lives into mine and others in hope to advance the kingdom of God here on earth. The kingdom of God is a mindset, it is a spiritual awakening, and it is a lifestyle (Matthew 6:10).
One of these men trained me to learn about Jesus Christ and others, how they lived their lives, and to put what I had learned from them into action. But before he would take any of his time to disciple me, I had to memorize 1 Corinthians 13. He told me, “If we get the love part wrong, what’s the point?” That made sense to me since we know that, according to the Bible, God is love. So, I went to work on memorizing 1 Corinthians 13.
This text is very challenging. We see in verse 1 that while someone is speaking in tongues they might actually be speaking in an angelic language. We see that love is patient and kind and that it does not envy (here’s a little more to consider). With that said, we also see in verse 6 that “love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” 1 John 5:3 tells us that Biblical love isn’t just about accepting, but it is really about living out Godly ways, which includes delighting in truth.
So, since God is love, using the reason God has given to us as human beings, we can logically conclude that the God of the Bible will delight in truth. He will not promote or delight in evil ways as an okay way to live and do as we please without getting the consequences of natural law that we so justly deserve. Living this out can be very difficult. It’s difficult because our natural person wants to go our own way and not God’s way. When one chooses to live under God’s Law, now it should be the desire of that person’s spiritual “man” to follow God’s Law even if their natural “man” doesn’t like it.
Friends, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you should be striving to live out love in your life. This means for sure being patient and kind, not delighting in evil, and rejoicing in the truth. These go together. Love is not just an ushy, gushy love. It takes work. If one tries to love without pleasing God, according to the Bible that’s not Biblical love. It’s something else.
Here some other texts and writings to consider:
1 John 4:7-21
Matthew 5:17-20
Truth Without Love
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1 comments:
I have been thinking the same thing, the issue of love perhaps being misunderstood, at best. "Love is not just an ushy, gushy love. It takes work". What if love is a choice, once undertaken being fully backed by Heaven? Great post, thank you.
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