In 1967, The Beatles released “All You Need Is Love,” and it’s been a smashing success ever since. If there’s one thing the world can agree on, it’s that we need love. However, The Beatles didn’t really tell us what love was, but they did give us a great song to sing. In 1993, Haddaway released the song, “What is love,” which also didn’t answer the question but did give us something to dance to. What is love? What does it look like? How can we apply love, as defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4, to our lives?
Today, I’m going over love and how it’s defined by the Bible. Specifically, 1 Corinthians 13:4. I had heard the familiar tenets of love from this chapter in Corinthians spoken at weddings and quoted here and there before I was a Christian.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
1 Corinthians 13:4 (NIV)
In Greek, the word here for love is agape, so I’m only going to talk about this love today. This is the love that God has for us and it’s the same love He desires for us to have with each other. There is no higher love than agape love.
The first thing we notice about love here in this verse is that it’s patient. I like the words the New King James Version uses for patience. Love “suffers long.” How many of you know that suffering is a part of being patient? Whatever it is we’re waiting for we’re expecting it and we want it to happen. We don’t typically wait patiently for bad things to happen, do we? Well, we might. However, whatever it might be, good or bad, waiting for it can bring about suffering. Love is patient and long-suffering.
One of the questions I’m looking to answer today is how can we apply love, as it’s defined here, to our lives? Therefore, we’re going to use a checklist of sorts. First on this list is long-suffering patience. Are you patient with those whom you profess to love?
Love is patient, love is kind. The word kind here, in Greek, is chrésteuomai, and it means
to be kind (full of service to others), gentle. to show oneself useful.
This word, chrésteuomai, isn’t used anywhere else in the Bible. When Paul talks about being kind in Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (NIV), he uses a form of the same word, chrestoi, which means
Useful, gentle, pleasant, kind.
However, the key difference in their usage appears to be giving full service to other people.
Sometimes I find it best to understand what something is by understanding what it is not. Some antonyms of “kind” are heedless, inconsiderate, thoughtless, and unthinking. Therefore, when you love someone, you do everything you can to be considerate, thoughtful, gentle, and respectful in every regard for the person. Are you kind with those whom you profess to love?
The thing about love is you can’t have love without being patient. This is why patience is listed first. Part of being patient is, you guessed it, kind. If we’re being patient and kind, then we aren’t going to be envious, boastful, or proud. Love is all of these things, and there can’t be love without them. Therefore, as we continue reading about love in 1 Corinthians 13, we’re no longer reading what love is but what love looks like. We’ve already answered the question, What is love? The rest of these verses tell us what love looks like.
It does not dishonor others, 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.
1 Corinthians 13:5-7 (NIV)
If you’re seeing any of these issues in your relationships, then something isn’t right with one of those five things that make up love. In Galatians, Paul writes about the fruits of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). I’d say that if you’re having a problem with love in your life, then you should look to the fruits of the Spirit to help you see where there’s an issue.
It’s been easy to go over this verse from the Bible to answer the questions about love today, but will this really help us to love any better? What comes to mind is something Jesus told His disciples, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26 NIV).
Do you know God? God knows you, and He loves you. He sees you as significant because you are. No one is insignificant to Him. He’s with you today, right now, and He wants you to know Him. Jesus died for your sins and mine so we could be free of guilt, be freed from death, and live eternally with Him. Eternal salvation is just a prayer away.
Pray this prayer with me to accept the gift of salvation today:
Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, then congratulations! You are on the first step of a brand new life. Allow me to be the first to welcome you to my family, the family of God. There are abundant resources available online for new Christians. You can visit here for more information on what to do next. You can also leave me a comment, and I’ll do my best to help you on the next step of this incredible journey.
Four-Calendar Café 
Oh…..AMEN!
When one truly is granted the Grace to know Him, He will ravish our hearts with His Love, because there is nothing like in all of Creation, nor the Universe, it is endless, it is Priceless, it is unspeakable……so many times He grants me a refreshing wash of His Eternal Love towards a soul, He knows when we Need that incredible assurance, and there are moments without asking He just comes in like a flood. When that happens, I’m speechless, in my case when my own mother and father could not love me, HE took me up Psa_27:10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
And this: Son 2:4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
Son 2:5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.
I love the expression in Song of Solomon, which mirrors those one on one moments “I am sick of Love” “and His banner over me was Love”.
It was love that came and brought conviction of my sin, it was the Love of God that granted me the Grace to hear, the Grace to see, the Grace to believe, and the Grace to forgive, and the Grace to cleanse my sins as White as Snow, and the Loving Grace of His Holy Spirit to seal me unto the day I see Him face to face……
It surely is the Greatest Love Story the World has ever known……..When the Lord condescends from His Throne and touches and says “Arise dear soul and live”
For I am the Way, the Truth and the LIFE, no one came come unto the Father but through ME….
I AM, the GREAT I AM……
Only He cant truly melt a heart, and cleanse it, then Flood it with His Love…….
Oh….that I may know HIM…..oh….that I may know HIM, oh…….that I may know Him… not just in the Power of His Resurrection, but in the Fellowship of HIS SUFFERINGS……….
Thank you for allowing me to share, I do not have many to talk with or too.
Lord bless you for your loving Kindness…….THIS is how we are to Love one Another as HE HAS and DOES LOVE US! And where ever we are lacking in this….HE says, Ask of me and it shall be given…….the Lover of our soul is the Only one who truly KEEPS HIS PROMISES!
Lord bless you dear brother…..
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Amen! Hallelujah! Glory to God!
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Oh, by the way I truly like your title, “Four-Calendar Cafe” If I may ask, what made you think of it, because being in Quebec I do like the cafe’s. Sleep well and take care dear brother, may the Lord grant you sweet sleep under His Wings….
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Thank you. It’s the name of my favorite albums by the Cocteau Twins. I enjoy spending time in cafes performing poetry, chatting, reading, writing, and sitting in front of the fire. Good times.
Sleep well, my brother, and God bless you!
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If I may ask where do you reside? So you perform poetry…really? I love also talking with people, I do write, I journal, and reading well besides the Lord’s word, I do have a collection of antique books. One of my favorites is “The English Poets” from Wordsworth to Tennyson, published in 1917, it includes works from Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Walter Scott, John Keats,Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and many other’s. I enjoy the old books, I enjoy their english styling, the morals of the day were more honorable, just some interesting reading.
I am a professional chef, caterer, baking, singing, and music, mostly classical, some soft jazz instrumental, and old classical hymns, I do not care for Christian pop, so-called worship music.
And I have 2 excellent virtual Fire Place video’s which runs for hours on my large desktop screen. One of them is actually showing the man place his wood logs on the fire, stirring them, and about 45 minutes in a train goes by his home…..takes me back to the country farm my grandparents had, where the train would travel by in the back woods…..the sound is so comforting.
I do not know where you reside, but myself being un”jabbed”, I can not sit in cafes with a nice hot Cafe latte and read a book. But that’s okay, I have my comfortable apartment, and the Lord is here so I don’t mind missing going to cafes. I am a cook so I can whip any type of dinner and dessert’s for myself. I’ve never married, been single all these years, but the Lord called me to it, and that’s been just fine for me, more time to get to know the Lord and His will………what I know is just a tiny morsel of all what the Lord represents, I mean good grief He is Eternal, and His Wisdom is far reaching………can you imagine what it will be like when we dwell with Him forever…….the mind can not contain it!
Well that’s enough……….Good night.
The Lord bless you!
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I’m new to Sacramento, California. Between being relatively new here and the pandemic I’ve not been out recently.
Old books are great and those are some good authors.
I’ve not used any virtual fireplaces yet! Sounds inviting.
God bless you!
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We all need God’s love. His love never fails. He loves us no matter what. We are His children. I am grateful to have His love in my heart, and to be loved by Him. Praise the Lord, Amen!
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Amen!
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