Love is…

1 Corinthians 13 is a chapter written by Paul. In it he tells us what love is to look like in our interactions and behaviours with each other. God doesn’t reduce love to marriages, and immediate family; He wants us as believers to act in love towards all of humanity. This love that Paul speaks of is known as ‘agape’ love. Agape love is a spiritual love that is given to others without expecting anything in return; it is unconditional. It is love that is given even to our worst enemy and those we deem undeserving of our love.

Application: a.k.a “The Dare”. (Dare: to do something that is difficult or that people are usually afraid to do.)

Below is the scripture reading for today and I encourage you to read it aloud. Now for the dare! Once you are finished reading, I dare you to replace the word ‘love’ and ‘it’ with your own name for verses 4-6 and read the passage again aloud. (e.g. If your name is Stephen, then you would say, Stephen is patient, Stephen is kind. Stephen does not envy…)

And now for dare part 2! Type or hand write either all of 1 Corinthians 13 or only verses 4-6,  which ever one you choose, write/type it with your name inserted into verses 4-6 and post it to a place where you will see it everyday as a reminder (e.g. fridge, bathroom mirror, on your bedroom wall, as a screen saver, maybe even on your mobile phone).  During advent, feel free to refer to it as often as you need to as a reminder of what love is. God bless!

1 Corinthians 13

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, 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. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.