5/22, 1 Corinthians 13

Well first off, welcome to my first blog. It's something I've wanted to do for a while but just never thought I'd have the time for or a good enough reason to do it. But I've changed my routine a bit and should be blogging at least once/day so feel free to check in frequently as I'll try to keep fresh content on here. So, here we go...

I've been studying 1 Corinthians and today brings me to chapter 13, the infamous love chapter. So let me just say, I love you guys! This isn't an unfamiliar passage for most but to briefly sum it up, it gives a comprehensive definition of what true love is. It's not just your actions (v. 1-3) because even if you save 1000 babies from 1000 buildings but don't have love, it profits nothing. God is always looking at the intent of our hearts over our actions and while that may sound a bit crass, esp for those of you with baby-building-saving experience, its actually an example of God's grace to us. We might be able to flaunt our counterfeit love here on earth but God knows whats up.

As I look at verses 4-7, the only accurate depiction of such a perfect love is our God. Love is longsuffering and kind....God dealt with the Israelites' constant betrayal for hundreds of years, and while He didn't spare them the rod (because he loves them of course) the amazing thing is how He went out of His way to keep blessing them, so much so that He would ultimately sacrifice His own Son for this rowdy bunch. Many of us can't imagine even sacrificing a smile to a co-worker who we think has somehow wronged us. Love endures all things....a focused reading of the end of any of the gospels (or an extensive viewing of The Passion of the Christ) would just about help you get the point here.

In my bible study, we've been going through a study called Crazy Love by Francis Chan, which I'd highly recommend. Chan describes how God ties together two of God's greatest commandments from Matthew 22:36-39 - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength" and "Love your neighbor as yourself." Then in chapter 25, in response to those asking how we can serve God, we hear Jesus say "'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." So the challenge then becomes for us to treat everyone we meet the same way we would treat Jesus, because it's clear from these verses that this is how we will be judged. I challenge you to think about the implications of such an exercise and how that could change your life. This includes, but is not limited to, the lady in the grocery store with 100 items in the '12 items or less' lane, the slow guy in the fast lane with his blinker on and on his cell phone, Pittsburgh Steelers fans, and other such people we may generally find despicable (sorry Steeler fan, I'm genuinely working on trying to love you).

As many of you may know I just recently found out I'm going to be a father. For a while it was kinda surreal and was a really cool thing that was happening in my life. But when I first heard the heartbeat and then saw the sonograms, I was in love. Now you parents with fully-developed, out-of-womb children likely understand this more fully but I'm starting to get a glimpse of what an unconditional love feels like. My prayer today is that each day I grow in the type of love described in 1 Cor 13. That I can be more patient, kind and enduring with my wife and our new child. That the motive behind my works would be love and not attention. That I become less judgemental and begin to view others as Christ does - people worthy of love and found worthy of a Saviour.