What is Love?

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

The 'love' chapter... I think I have heard more messages, read more commentary, and done more Sunday school lessons on this passage of the Bible than any other! Although, you may be like me on this passage of scripture, surely there is still more we can 'dig' out so that we can live it out.

Several years ago, I took a Bible Study class by Beth Moore called Living Beyond Yourself. It is a study based on the fruit of the Spirit. Yet again, Galatians 5:22-23 is a very familiar passage so I wasn't sure how much I would learn from this study. (Those of you that have done Beth Moore studies are laughing out loud right now I'm sure!) "But the fruit of the Spirit is love..." Of all the fruit, love is listed first. Other than the word "Lord", love is used more in the Bible than any other word. We know that God is Love. But, how are we to love?

During that Bible study and for the next year and a half, God truly began to show me what love is. Agape is the Greek word used in 1 Corinthians 13. Agape love or God-love is divine, unconditional love that I am convinced within the natural man (meaning the flesh) we don't have any hope of possessing. This type of love is only a gift from the Holy Spirit. However, we can truly experience this type of love by yielding ourselves to the Spirit daily. Only agape can possess all of these qualities. God has helped me better understand these verses and put them into practice in my daily life by giving me this paraphrase:

• Agape is patient meaning that even though I could avenge myself, I will choose not to.
• Agape is kind and useful to His kingdom.
• Agape does not want what others have. It is content.
• Agape does not boast or brag except about God and what He has done.
• Agape refuses to be prideful because pride is deceit of oneself.
• Agape is never rude, therefore I should never be hateful or act unbecoming of God or the body of Christ.
• Agape is not self-seeking and it does not seek to receive love in return. If God had sought His own interests, He wouldn't have given Jesus over to be crucified.
• Agape is slow to anger. It can be angered, but very slowly.
• Agape does not keep a list of other's wrongs. It does not revel in other's failures.
• Agape doesn't delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It isn't happy when evil is taking place in it's presence.
• Agape always protects others by not exposing their faults.
• Agape has faith in others.
• Agape expects the best in others.
• Agape never gives up.
• And most importantly, agape NEVER fails!! When you love God and people with this type of love, your actions will never be in vain and even if it is not received, it will never fall to the ground. Your Savior, Jesus Christ, THE King of Kings and Lord of Lords will pick it up. Can I just say Hallelujah?

When I first realized that without the grace of God I didn't have a chance of loving Him or my neighbors the way the Bible commands us to ("Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Matthew 22:37) it radically changed my prayer life. I began confessing to God daily that I did not have the love for Him or for others that He wanted me to have. I still continue to ask Him to give it to me daily. And you know what? My answer comes the same way everyday.

"If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!" Matthew 7:11