Over the last few weeks I have been sharing a series of messages entitled "Love Is..." The whole point of the series was to help the PBC Family not only encounter the love of God but to teach us how to represent the love of God to one another.
The scriptural foundation for the series comes from the popular 1 Corinthians 13 description of The Nature, The Practice, & The Culmination of Love. What you discover in this section of the Bible is that...
Love is a powerful force
Love looks like something
Love never changes
Of all the virtues that the Bible describes for us, Love is the one that will stick around for all eternity. Why? Because God is love. Love isn't just something that God does. Love is who God is. What God does flows from who He is. In the same way, you and I must learn how to draw from the nature of God in all of our relationships.
For far too long people have looked upon this idea of love in such a way that it is seen as weak. Or they think that if all we do is love then we will never confront any situation or person. But that isn't love. Jesus embodied for us what perfect love looked like. He didn't have a problem confronting issues in His disciples, in the religious institution of the day, or the people that He encountered. Just because we walk in love doesn't mean that we are going to "lay down" for everything or that we will be a doormat. Walking in love is difficult because it forces us to operate in such a way that relationships matter.
In fact, I believe there is a valid reason why this description of love shows up in church history. The church at Corinth is in a mess. The mess wasn't due to a lack of gifts, lack of resources, or a lack of people. The mess was created from the wrong mindset. You often see this in powerful people. It's real easy to operate in our gifts or from our position without recognizing the spirit that we are functioning from. Where the Spirit of God is present then we will operate in love. I truly believe that the more gifts that are manifested in the church, the more God's love should be experienced. However, church history has shown us that we have not learned the lesson of the Corinthian church.
It doesn't matter how gifted we are in the Spirit if we are not operating in the love of God. It never is a question about gifts. It's never a question about the right programs, the right music, or the right people. The question will always be: Is love present?
I encourage you to experience the love that...
bears all things
believes all things
hopes all things
endures all things
and never fails!
This is the love of God. And this is what we should be operating from as a community of believers.
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