February 14, 2020 – I Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. I Corinthians 13:4-8.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  John 13:34.  I heard a young Christian woman speaking to an older lady, “I love the way you love!“

The way we love is like an individual love-print.  How did Jesus love?  He loved us all the way to the cross.  He died for us.  His kind of love includes forgiveness and trust which gives us hope eternal. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love  one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.  I John 4:11-12. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15: 13.

Often I hear hymn lyrics as I think of the wonder of Jesus.  Elmo Mercer provided these: The way that He loves is as fair as the day, That blesses my way with love.  The way that He loves is as soft as the breeze, Caressing the trees at night… I know there’s a heaven above, To Jesus I’ll cling. Life’s a wonderful thing, Because of the way He loves. 

May we learn to LOVE like Jesus!

 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE.  I Corinthians 13:13.