What Love Is And What Love Is Not!

Numbers 24; Numbers 25; Numbers 26; Numbers 27; 1 Corinthians 13
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Scripture

1 Corinthians 13

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Observation

Talk about a convicting chapter this is one that speaks right to the heart! Let’s look at verses four through seven and see what love is and what love is not.

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

What really clobbers you as you read those verses? I think these are the ones that nail me, “love is not rude, love is not irritable, and love is patient”. You may say that you hardly ever see me being rude, irritable, or impatient and I would simply remind you that you are not married to me. The person I hurt the most is Kathy. When I am a grouch she usually catches the brunt of my ugliness. How about you? Who do you clobber when love is not what is overflowing from your life? I am sure it is the one or ones that you actually do love the most. They get to experience the real “us” more than anyone else.

Application

I will begin to memorize 1 Corinthians 13 today so the Holy Spirit can bring those verses to my mind when I am acting out.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, this is an amazing chapter and I pray that I demonstrate more of what love is and less of what love is not. Thank you for what You are doing in my life and in the lives of those around me. You are an amazing God.

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