Don’t see the audio player? Click here.
People define love in many ways. Sadly, far too many people confuse love with sex, or a feeling, or even something that others should give to us. They fail to grasp that true love has its origin in God, our Creator. We love because He first loved. God lovingly created us then sent His Son to die for our sins. It is refreshing to read what the apostle Paul wrote about love. After identifying in 1 Corinthians 12 various ways we might serve each other, he ends by focusing on the value of doing whatever we do with love. He writes, “If I could speak all the languages on earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, or boastful, or proud, or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Let us pursue love as Paul envisions it.
