“Love never ends.”
1 Corinthians 13:8
“Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
1 Corinthians 15:58
Facing the Day – Every act of love today participates in eternal love.
“Three thoughts shape Paul’s optimism: God’s unending, unstoppable, unconditional love; the fact that Good Friday gave way to Easter morn; and the reality that God’s Spirit was now unleashed in humans to empower them to become the ‘new creation.’ Because of the Father’s love, the Son’s victory, and the Spirit’s power genuine love can believe and hope that somehow, someday, things will change.” (p 165)
Do you have a handle on those three thoughts?
“True love – and you can’t get around this one – is optimistic…. in that word ‘love’ there is an unshakable, undeterred optimism…. the optimism of love is not a mental trick, as if by thinking positively only good things will happen. The optimism that comes from a Jesus Creed kind of love becomes optimistic because it believes and hopes in God.” (p 163-164)
How unshakable is love?
“It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:7
“And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Romans 5:3-5
Facing the Day – Love is hopeful because of God.
“Paul wrote one simple reminder: ‘love is not irritable.’ Today’s New International Version of the Bible translates the expression this way: love ‘is not easily angered.’ Anger is not consistent with love because love creates an environment of safety, goodness, and compassion for the other person. A Jesus Creed kind of love is not angered because anger attempts to obliterate the other.” (p160)
Today, how will you go about creating an environment of safety, goodness and compassion?
“Love orients us toward other people. We need to be oriented toward others because we are naturally selfish. We want things our way, we get upset when things don’t go our way … we need to change. A life where relationships are shaped by the Jesus Creed involves change and transformation, because it makes room in our life for the lives of others.” (p 158)
Do you agree? Are we naturally selfish? Do we need transformation?
Love “does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.”
1 Corinthians 13:5-6
“Then [Jesus] said to them all, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’”
Luke 9:23
Facing the Day – Love clams the self for the good of the other.
“Love is what happens between people in concrete reality — when humans show patience and kindness and avoid envy with one another — rather than simply the emotions that arise in one’s mind or in one’s heart. Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time trilogy repeats the line, ‘Love isn’t what you feel, it’s what you do.’ Thinking about love or feeling loving are good; but the goal of love is to establish and maintain healthy relationships with others.” (p 157)
What has all the talk this week of “real” love meant for you?
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-5
“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-5
Facing the Day – Love is patient and kind in relationship with others; it is not envious of others.
“You and I are not the only ones who have an assignment gift. Each of us has a spiritual assignment. Only when we see that our gift is part of the team called the body of Christ do we convert our gifts into the service of love for others.” (p 150)
How do you think about spiritual gifts?