Love
Friday 11th July
ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL chapters in our Bible is Paul's love chapter (1 Corinthians 13). Drummond in his book, "The Greatest Thing in the World" analyses it and finds that love is made up of nine ingredients which Paul deals with one at a time. These ingredients when properly mixed together make up the perfect love, the love of God and the love that we must acquire to be accepted of Christ at His coming.
It has been said that the greatest thing a man can do for God is to be kind to some of God's other children. Christ bore this out when he said "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." When we think about it, what can we really do for God? He is the possessor of heaven and earth. We can be kind to His children and in so doing we show our love. John said, "If a man say 'I love God' and hateth his brother, he is a liar: For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he bath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also."
Here are the nine ingredients of love given by Paul:
1. Patience-Love suffereth long. True love suffers long, beareth all things, hopeth all things, is patient and waits.
2. Kindness-Love is kind. Christ's whole life was spent doing kind things for others. How much we appreciate kindness.
3. Generosity-Love envieth not. In every good work we do, we find others doing the same work. Love is not jealous of another's good work and so envies not.
4. Humility-Love is humble, for love vaunteth not itself and is not puffed up. After being kind or generous, slip back into the shadows and say nothing about it. "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up."
5. Courtesy-Love doth not behave itself unseemly. Politeness is love in trifles. Courtesy is love in little things. The secret of politeness is love. A gentleman is a gentle man.
6. Unselfishness-Love seeketh not her own. Here is complete unselfishness. Love does not even seek that which it has coming. Instead of standing up for one's rights, love eliminates the personal element altogether. We ought to remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ for he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
7. Good Temper-Love is not easily provoked. Ill temper shows up the other ingredients that we lack. A lack of patience, kindness, generosity or courtesy is symbolised in one flash of temper.
8. Guilelessness-Love thinketh no evil. Love imputes no motive, sees the bright side, puts the best construction on every action. What a delightful state of mind. We will do no evil if we think no evil.
9. Sincerity-Love rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth. Sincere men will rejoice only in the truth. We must accept only what is real, we must strive to get at the facts, we must in everything search for truth with a humble and unbiased mind and cherish the truth.
The task before us is to put these nine ingredients to work in our everyday lives. Love is not a thing of enthusiastic emotion; it is a rich, strong, manly, vigorous expression of the true brother and sister of Christ.
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God."