Week 5: Love is... (A Many Splendor Thing)
Verse for the week: 1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous Or boastful Or proud.
Ah... one of the most familiar verses in the Bible. This verse is very short, but this post is probably one of the longest in the series. There is SOOO much to this verse. There is SO much to learn. We should probably get right into it :)
My Study Bible says, "Love is more than a feeling-- it is an attitude that reveals itself through actions."
How's that for "What is love?" lol
We can tell people we love them from now until doomsday-- but if we don't feel it in our hearts, then our actions won't reflect it. We learned in Sunday School today that our actions speak louder than our words. The same is definitely true when it comes to love. A lot of times we don't even have to say we love something/someone because our actions will prove it.
In our verse this week, we learn that love is 2 things (and is not 3 more things).
Love is... Kind Patient
Love is NOT... Jealous Boastful or Proud
In the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 13, Paul used 7 words to describe what Love IS. He uses 8 words to describe what love is NOT.
I guess we needed to know how not act more than how too act lol.
We learned on our Tuesday homework (if you did it) from 1 Peter 1:22 to love each other with our whole heart. To "sincerely love" means to love unconditionally. Only Jesus has ever been perfect at this. The rest of us have to work at it. We will never be perfect at it, but the more we study and the more we want to be "Christ-like" the better we will be at it.
We are going to go over each of these 5 actions individually.
*Love is Patient.
Patience is one of those things (like money) that we never seem to have enough of--- and (like money) it seems to run out at the worst moments.
What exactly is patience? Patience is waiting a long time-- giving room for an action. It means not being short-tempered or giving up if we don't get our answers in "our" time.
I don't know about you, but my patience seems to be about drained at around 3:30 every day. It doesn't matter if it is a school day or an at home day-- after 3:30 is when I can feel my energy draining and my short temper rising. The time between 3 pm and 7 pm seems to be the longest of the day for me. Its busy, but its not. Between the cooking, cleaning, playing, reading, bathing the kids, bedtime routines, by 7 pm if I have had enough patience left not to yell at my kids, then it is a good day... rare, but good day.
Does that mean that I don't love my kids or my husband if I'm not patient with them all of the time?
We all know the answer to that is No. No it doesn't. The fact that we even TRY shows that we love them.
But we are human--- and we are flawed (and tired in my case lol).
Notebook Question: Think of 2 days. One when you were in a great mood all day. You had great patience with everyone and you were your 'best self'. Then think of another day when you weren't. When you woke up with little patience, were snippy, and had the patience of a gnat. How were the 2 days different? How did your kids/husband/co-workers react? Were their attitudes different?
When we try to have patience, we aren't in bad moods, our kids seem to do better (maybe because we can handle them better or the day seems smoother).
On the days when we have little to no patience, well-- our day doesn't go so great.
Kinda annoying, ain't it? lol The day we need everyone to be their best they aren't--- and it is partially due to OUR mood. Hows' that for counterproductive...
We are as patient (as we can be) with our husbands, kids, neighbors, etc because we love them. We will in no way be perfect at it-- but it is the trying that counts.
*Love is Kind.
Kindness means being nice and gracious to others.
Simple acts of kindness shown to neighbors can make a true difference in their lives as well as theirs.
I love the movie Evan Almighty. I actually like it better than the first movie, Bruce Almighty. In the former, Evan Baxter (upon his first night of being a US Congressman) prayed to change the world. So God (having a sense of humor) decided to have him channel Noah and build an ARK. Well, he goes through the movie-- a flood comes-- and Evan is obedient to God. At the end, God tells Evan: "Do you know how to save the world? Through an Act of Random Kindness (ARK)."
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... (lightbulb)
Being kind to people is one of the best ways you can show you love them...
And sometimes we are better at this with strangers or acquaintances than we are with family.
Notebook question: What are some ways we can show kindness to others? List them.
We all know how nice it is when others show kindness to us. Wouldn't it be nice to pass that good feeling on?
*Love is not Jealous.
In my NLT Bible it uses the word Jealous. The NKJV uses the word "Envy". Not sure which word sounds worse...
Envy is a very ugly emotion.
Paul tells us here that true love doesn't envy: isn't jealous of another person's success.
Notebook question (s): What are you jealous of? What qualities does a person you find yourself jealous of possess that you wish you had? How can you gain those qualities (in a good way)?
God gave us all we have for a reason. If he had of wanted me to have 200 blog followers, I would have. If he had of wanted me to be 6 foot tall and 120 pounds, I would be. We need to be thankful for what God has given us and not want/covet what others have. That's why I like 'Thankful Tuesdays' here on this blog so I can take the time to count my blessings (because even though I do envy at times-- I am So grateful for all I have).
We need to say "Thank you Lord" at every opportunity. We need to count our blessings especially when we feel jealousy creeping in.
Think about it this way-- God thinks so much of us that He evaluates our specific needs and everything He gives us is based on meeting those needs.
Thinking of it like that, it feels pretty special. Why be jealous if we have exactly what God wants us to have?
Jealousy of others doesn't lead to us showing them love either. You aren't inclined to be nice to someone who you envy. So we need to work extra hard to get those feelings out of our mind and give them to God.
*Love is not boastful.
What does it mean to boast? According to Shepherd's Notes "The word Paul used for "boastful" meant being a braggart--- or a "windbag"
lol.
How's that for an image?!
Next time you feel like boasting-- imagine yourself turning into a big ole windbag :)
If you truly love someone, you don't run up to them bragging about your new car, electronic gadget, job, etc. Now that doesn't mean that you can't tell others your good news. You don't have to hide the goodness in your life-- but you don't need to go overboard.
When you excessively brag, you plant seeds that can possibly make the other person feel bad-- and we don't want that. We need to encourage not discourage.
Notebook question: How is being boastful different than simply sharing information with a friend?
*Love is Not Proud
Our last action of this verse. Love is not proud.
Love doesn't let normal pride in accomplishments turn into being overly prideful (a sin God doesn't particularly like).
You should be happy with your accomplishments, but not to the extent that you 1) boast about it excessively. 2) forget that God is the reason you did it.
We need to try to let the internal pride we feel override the external praise our human mind desires.
Notebook Question: What does it mean (to you) that 'love isn't proud'?
**************************
We have come to the end of this week's post. We have learned 2 things that love is-- and 3 things love is not.
Notebook Question: Think back over the lesson today, what did you learn (if anything) to help you "love your neighbor" better?
Remember, we aren't looking for perfection--- we are looking for progress :)
Next week, we will be studying 1 Corinthians 13:5. Love is not rude. It does not demand its own way. It's not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
OH! It's gonna be interesting! lol I'm looking forward to it and I hope you are too :)
Our Daily Verses to get us ready...
Tuesday: Philippians 2:4-5
Wednesday: 1 Corinthians 10:24
Thursday: Galatians 6:2-3
Friday: Hebrews 10:17-18
Saturday: 1 Corinthians 13:5
Much love, and thanks for participating in this Bible Study :)
~Kelly~