True Love

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not 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 with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." 1 Corinthians 13:1-12

The people of Corinth were very new in their faith and had many questions for Paul. He had ministered to them earlier in person, and later wrote to them several letters. Our book in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians, is one of those letters. The context of this letter was to help them grow in their faith. In Chapter 13, he wanted to reveal to them what real, true love is all about. The love that Paul communicated in this letter is agape love. Agape is the unconditional, sacrificial love of God; you can do nothing to deserve more or less of God's love. His love is unconditional and never wavers. Paul's letter was meant to convey to the Corinthians the value of real, true love.

Paul demonstrated in verses 1-3 that accomplishments and speeches without love are just noise and have no value. But one who acts and speaks with love, stands out among the rest. Without love, all that you give and do means nothing. Love is necessary, just as the air we breathe and the food we eat. There is real value in true love.

In verses 4-7, Paul shows the characteristics of this love. These show us the way we should treat one another. And that is not always easy, but even then we are not alone. It is with God's help, because He loves us, that we can truly love. When we look at patience, kindness, humility, trust, hope, perseverance and all the traits of true love, would it be a stretch for us to consider that many of us today do not have a clue what real true love is all about. There should be a re-focus on those qualities. We should focus more on the positives and less of the negatives because life is just too short.

In verses 8-12 Paul shows the permanency of true love. "Love never fails." There is a real message in those three words. We have God's promise that with His love, for sure, our love can never fail. There will come a day when all we know of this world will be no more. When that day comes our hopes will be realized. All will be clearly seen and we will have no need for faith. But Love will live on forever. Love is the fire that kindles our faith, the light that turns hope into a sure thing. As great as hope and faith are, Love is greater.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13

God's Unconditional Love

"So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:17-19

God's love is so deep, so wide; it is so long; it is so high. His love has nothing to do with what you or I can do or say. God loves us because God is love. 

God's love for the nation of Israel was great, even during times when they seemed to reject this love. "The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt." (Deuteronomy 7:7-8) There are at least 13 times recorded that Israel turned its back on God - yet His love for them never faltered. And He loves us in spite of ourselves as well. 

There are many kinds of human love. This love is sometimes sporadic, comes with conditions and can even be temporary. God's love is unconditional, constant, and perfect. We cannot influence God's love. People sometimes attribute circumstances to God's love. If a person seems to do well in all aspects of life, some will say that God must really love that person. On the other hand, a person who seems to be suffering may be viewed as being neglected and unloved by God. Circumstances have nothing to do with the love of God. When looking for a gauge to measure God's love, do not look at circumstances, but look at the cross. 

God's love is everlasting, unconditional and all-encompassing. There is nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God. It is always there and all we have to do is believe and receive it.

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. 8: 38-39

Oh How He Loves Us!

"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal 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 eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:14-17)

God loves us so. His word is full of messages to us; He shows us, in ways that we can hold onto. His love does not tell us what we want to hear, but it does provide for us what we need to know.  Jesus was part of God's loving plan to save all of humanity. His love has been reaching out to His creation since the dawn of time. We saw last week that His love created us. And His love offers to us a deliverance. Because of sin, humanity had lost its communion with its creator; Jesus came to fulfill God's plan to restore that communion that was there before sin came. He was and He still is the bridge that would cross this great divide between our humanity and a great, pure and sinless God. The ONLY way to cross that great divide is to depend upon the sacrifice already given - Jesus; not by any other means.

What does this mean for us today? How does this apply to any of us? We are all sinners. We seek to please ourselves; we seek to gain what we want; we seek to gain our pleasures and desires. Most of the time, God's desire is completely left out of our wishes. The path we seek is usually our own path, and not the one God has chosen or desires for us, which is a good definition of sin. When we choose our own path, we are separate from God and a gap exists. Jesus came out of the love of God to bridge that gap for all who accept Him. Those who choose not to accept Him, choose not receive what Jesus came to bring.

God gives us all free will; His love reaches out to us, provides delieverance for us, but it is up to us to receive it. Jesus Christ was sent from the Father that we can know salvation and deliverance. This is firm evidence of God's love for us. Many people today do not believe in God. To me it takes a lot of faith for a person to believe that the world, the heavens and all that surrounds us just happened and that there is no Creator. Others believe that He exists, but they blame God for all things that go wrong in the world. God does not wish anything bad for mankind, but he did give us the will to choose. Humanity often chooses to ignore God, to separate from God and choose sin. Because of sin, the evils of this world are able to continue on and even to prosper. I wish I had a clear explanation as to why evil and bad things happen in our world; but I can only tell you that God loves you. He has made a way for us to know Him, to have a joy that goes beyond understanding. That way is Jesus Christ - the full revelation of the love of God for you. Oh how He loves us so!

God's View of the Sanctity of Human Life

"For you created my inmost being;  you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;  your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Psalm 139: 13-16

Does life begin at conception or does it begin at birth? People debate the two sides of this argument daily. But in the long run, the only answer, the one that matters, comes from God. Humans are made to reflect the majesty of who God is; only humans reflect the real true glory of God. This passage from Psalms 139 shows us that the structure and the meaning of a person's life are all established right from the beginning by God in the womb.

"Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." Psalms 51:5

God starts out at conception to develop a human being. So yes even our sinfulness begins with conception. But God loves us even as that little cell at conception and he loves us now. ALL life is important to God. So much so that it is He wants all of us to live with Him forever.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 

As a Church, Should Growth Be Our Objective?

Believe it or not, I do not see growth as the objective of our Church. Our true objective is to have a healthy Church and the outcome of this will naturally be growth. Take for example a new born baby. As a parent, your objective is to provide love, food, clothing and shelter - to keep them healthy. What happens as a result? Growth happens, without force, but 

naturally. When as a parent, we provide a healthy lifestyle for our children, they grow. The same can be said for our Church. Our objective as individual Christians and collectively as a Church should be to maintain a healthy relationship with the Lord and strive to be more like Jesus. If we stay healthy spiritually and physically, growth will be the outcome. We need to be about His business; we need to let our lives touch those who don't know Him. Growth is the outcome for the Church when we have a healthy Church and individually when we have a healthy relationship with Jesus Christ. With a healthy relationship with God, we can be like Peter and John. In Acts Chapter 4, the religious leaders "commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, 'Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.' Acts 4:18-20