Love

You would think that love would be easy to define, easy to see; it is on the surface, but the deeper I dig I am discovering how complicated and hard love really can be.

God is love. Yes, I know that, I’ve heard that my entire life. “For God so LOVED the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 – I’m sure the most quoted verse of the Bible. This is where I started. John 3:16 seemed easy enough. However, how often do I really see this and even worse how often do I really exhibit this quality? … my answer was pretty much silence.

After facing the brutal fact that I really do not show much of Christ’s love I continued with another famous passage. The “love chapter” I’m sure you all know where I went next, 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13 :

“…and now I will show you the most excellent way…love is patient, love is kind. It does no envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails… and now these three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” I spent some time breaking this down a little and began to find these things all around me. I have seen incredible patience and kindness. I am generally as a person not easily angered (unless of course you are in 7th grade and in my class in the month of May or June). I am not around people who delight in evil. My earthly father has always protected and provided for me just has his father does for us and they both have painted the picture of my real Father so perfectly that I have no trouble comprehended that or seeing that around me. My Chris, always trusts he never doubts for our future when I tend to worry. Chris is incredibly faithful in his trust in Christ; I know that comes from love and Chris gives that love to Reese and me. I got stuck on the last part – “the greatest of these is love” this LOVE like God shows is powerful, so powerful it is mentioned over 700 times in the Bible. If I want to “bear fruit” it has to start with love. Where do I fail at love?

Unfortunately I was brought to 2 Peter 1: 4-9 in Peter’s letter of warning to all Christians. Peter really hit me hard from the beginning. In verse 4 it states “ … so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness (this one is pretty easy, I feel pretty good about the amount of goodness in my life – keep reading) and to goodness, knowledge (okay, I’m not the smartest person but I am seeking to grow in the knowledge of the Word..hey I’m feeling pretty good here – keep reading) and to knowledge, self-control (sweet, another easy thing for me..I am pretty controlled, I don’t struggle with this…- keep reading) and to self-control, perseverance (okay – I’m getting stuck, I do have a hard time sticking things out, not trusting my favorite verse that one hanging above my couch, Romans 8:28 if you didn’t know – but that is not daily – keep reading) and to perseverance, godliness ( I’m not sure I even know exactly what godliness looks like, but I know I strive daily to be like Christ to do things that honor Him and show others His love – just keep reading Stacy) and to godliness, brotherly kindness (wait does that mean the whole love your enemy thing? Does that mean I am to love my neighbor – all of them – as myself? Even those that slander us? Oh, that would by my enemy….crap! That’s hard!! They are so self-seeking, they only do what they want, what is good for them, they don’t think of others there has to be a loop hole..surely…) and to brotherly kindness love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.” There isn’t a loop hole, if I want to love, if I want to bear fruit I have to get this “brotherly kindness” stuff. I do not want to be found blind, “for all have sinned.” So my goal this week is to work on brotherly kindness so that I can become productive in the attempt to bear fruit and to start with the fruit of love. I am going to make a point to do good for those who aren’t my biggest fan, or those who aren’t the biggest fan of a member of my family. I have done this before, and I will say that God doesn’t lie, it does work. I’ll keep you posted with how it works out this week.

Please pray for my attempts at brotherly love; please pray that love will begin to bloom in my life.

Thanks for “listening” it helps to write.