1 CORINTHIANS 13
4. Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy; is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
5. Is not conceited — arrogant and inflated with pride; it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love God’s love in us does not insist on its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it – pays no attention to a suffered wrong. Amp.
We are discussing God’s love in us. Human love has no ability to obey these scriptures on love. I have written about this chapter before and I usually think, “no way.” I know how I have been hurt and how impossible it was for me to pay no attention to a suffered wrong. I always paid attention to the wrongs done to me. So why am I writing this now?
We are in God’s school of sorrow. We all will find rejection of some degree before we die. How it affects our walk with the Lord is the point. This is God’s love that He has put into our hearts and not our own human love. So, we have been given the ability to obey what the Word says. We must first decide that we want to obey and love others like God loves us.
He loves us and never brings up the times our sin has hurt Him. He knows that it is His love that is going to cause us to obey and serve Him and eventually keep us out of hell. So, He loves us when we least deserve it. He endures long with us, is so patient and kind. He is always lowly and humble which is what shows up in His gentleness. He is never rude.
We have His love inside of us showing us continually how to love others. We can only love His way by the power of the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is ask and not give up. We must keep on doing our best to follow His ways and example.
But I think the greatest reason we have to love like Him is because we love Him and want to please Him. We want to love others not because they deserve it, or we want to continually love someone who keeps on being an irritation to us. No, we are not made that way. But He is and we want to please Him and be like Him. If that is our motive, then He will make sure that we will make it. Let’s let Him have it all.