Are You Being Loving?

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things.  Love never fails; 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a


Wow, that's a lot of what love is and isn't!  It's amazing how much of my day I spend talking to my kids about loving one another (Mathew 19:19 and Leviticus 19:18) even as I type I have to stop to discuss with my child his lack of love towards his sibling.  Sometimes I wonder why they struggle so much with loving others and then I'm reminded of how much I struggle with it, not to mention that we are sinners.  I want so much to always be loving but in the words of Paul, For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. Romans 7:19  Sadly it is not natural for me to be loving and that is exactly why I have to seek scripture and pray for God's help and mercy.  Now just because I struggle with loving others doesn't mean I can't correct and teach my children or others.  Of course I need to take the plank out of my own eye before going to someone else.  I am commanded to train my children in God's ways and what a great injustice I would do to them if I neglect to correct their sin.

I've talked about love in reference to my children but it applies to so much more.  Whether you are driving in your car, at the grocery store, school, work or whatever you are doing you always have opportunity to love others.  That gold mini van just cut you off; how do you respond?  Your boss just chewed you out in a managers meeting for making a mistake; do you think "I'm thankful that my boss desires for me to do better?"  There are many scenarios, insert what applies to you.  Now look at the verse I put at the beginning and ask yourself if you are doing each thing that love is or isn't.  Are you being patient, kind, jealous, etc.  I know that I fail daily when I answer these questions.  God wants us to obey in everything so if you earnestly ask and diligently seek God for help in this area, He will supply all you need to obey.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.  1 Corinthians:1-3    

Several years ago I had a dear friend ask me "are you being loving?"  She was responding to my ability to discern sin in someone and just want to tell them about it because they were in sin.  She clearly saw my sin and responded in love and was instrumental in teaching me that I was being a noisy gong.  It doesn't matter if I can see sin in someone if my desire is not to see them restored to the Lord.  Without love I am nothing!  It profits me nothing to correct sin in someone if I am unloving and do not have God's glory in mind.  I will forever be thankful for my dear friend's words and loving rebuke that are a constant reminder to keep me in check.

I encourage you to memorize 1 Corinthians chapter 13 so that you can fight sin with God's word as soon as it rears its ugly head.

Angie