5.The Love Mirror
Bless you reader and bless everyone you are trying to love.
Continuing in Corinthians, love:
“does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil”
1 Cor. 13:5
Ok, so the Bible is pretty convicting. Again, notice the language. Does the Word say, “very rarely acts rudely” or “only seeks its own if it needs to?” No. It says, “not, not, not, no.” People often like to respond to Biblical doctrine with, “well that’s just one interpretation.” -(Another way of saying, from a well known dialogue, “did God really say..?” Gen. 3:1) They might assume here that the word ‘no’ has changed slightly over the years. And what was originally meant by the word ‘no’ was something most assuredly less extreme. How convenient that would be. Except! we are talking about the very attributes of God. Remember, “God is Love.” And while if given the power I would have changed some of these attributes to make Jennifer LeGrand my High School girlfriend, I would have, even then, known it to be unnatural and wrong. And still I hear Jennifer is even more beautiful while I am even more single.. *sigh*…
Anyway, regarding the above passage. Am I “Rude?” Not very often but still I have been known to be rude. I have even been called a rude person. And that by someone I will admit knew me fairly well. I was offended, but I can be pretty short with people sometimes. I used to be worse, but I will always have that part of me that can switch on a rude attitude.
“Does not seek it’s own”? I have certainly thought more about myself in this life than I have about anyone else. As well as this I can personally attest to the fact that I nearly always prefer the things I want to what others want. And what human doesn’t?
“Is not provoked?” Here I’m guilty again. Although I have managed to better feign not being provoked over the years. Does that count?
“Thinks no evil.” No. I never think bad thoughts. I never even have self-centered or angry thoughts. Yikes! I’m kidding of course. It is amazing that people can actually take that stance, still I have heard it, and many times.
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A. By God’s standard of love I do not measure up. I fail continually on every last point.
B. By mans standard well, I do not care. But for conversation sake I will say that if ever I am rude or easily provoked or selfish or unkind and (I must add) if I notice it, it truly hurts and disturbs me. Not because of social or personal woes, but because I know I am a Christian and am supposed to be honorable toward God because He has already forgiven me so much. I am a Christian and I do not want other non-christians to doubt the power of God in not being able to keep me neatly in line. Or doubt the reality of what Christ has done freely for all of us. But, I still sin. I sin because I just don’t care sometimes. And each time it hurts. And I either wish the sin away. Pray over it and ask God for help, both sincerely and insincerely. Feel sore about it or maybe stop it all together. This is called repentance, Metanoeo in Greek. It means to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins. Clearly I’ve got me some Metanoeo.
And this brings us to the Gospel and repentance. The Gospel is believed by me and many to really only have two halves: repentance and belief. “Repent” appears 36 times from Matt. 3:2 “And saying, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” to Rev. 3:19 “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.”
Question: How can one repent unless one really looks at their heart and the sin they should be repenting of? Without this there is no real repentance. Just unresolved guilty feelings. Do you have belief, but think Holiness is for monks? Belief is only half. It says in James 2:19 “..the devils also believe and tremble.”
Back to the ‘Love Chapter’
When we read, “does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;” (and so much more in God’s Word) it is evident we cannot really measure up in any real way. Instead, consider it as a mirror revealing God’s attributes and at the same time our most glaring faults. The faults hurting the ones we love the most. The faults that have caused us so much pain. The faults that make us appear as hypocritical christians to a world that is supposed to “know us by our love.” Consider it a ‘Love Mirror’ that can reveal your most harmful and tangible faults. This chapter is useless if used to qualify someone else’s love. You may know by now, they fail. But for us personally to see Gods beauty and perfection and where and how we lack His attributes. Still, please don’t forget. If you have trusted in Christ then your salvation is not based on performance in this regard or any regard. Awesome!
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John 13:34
June 19th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
God is love and while we attempt to emulate that we can never live up to His example. I still believe that humans are born good. By good, I mean innocent. Through society and his or her experience in society, man begins to be jaded. This ought to make sense to you based on what you have said. If God is good, and it is through Him that we are created, then we can’t help being born in innocence and goodness. But the moment, the child begins to interact with others, he or she experiences disappointment which slowly chips away at the spirit of God within him or her.
Listen to what Wordsworth says in his Ode to Intimation upon Immortality:
THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparell’d in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream. 5
It is not now as it hath been of yore;—
Turn wheresoe’er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
He describes the innocence of childhood where we are closer to Heaven and able to see God reflected all around us. Now, as we grow older, we move farther away from Heaven and forget the glory, yet upon hitting our elder years, we have made are way along the circular path and are finally returning to that radius that separates earth from Heaven. Just the proximity of it begin to move us, once again, closer to God. That may be why so many elderly people end up with dementia and become like children again. He says that “the thought of our past years in [us] doth breed/Perpetual Benediction” as he refers to man’s distance from God and Heaven. And yet he or she still knows that this faint memory, or intimation, of Heaven is a benediction, blessing.
I’m not quoting Wordsworth as a if he stands in place of the words of the Bible. I quote him as he was greatly influenced by his faith and the words of the Bible.
June 20th, 2010 at 9:19 am
At first glance, I have always found it interesting and ironic that this passage uses so much negative imagery to describe such a postive truth. You definitely illustrate this point. I suppose that this is the only way to truly describe the absoluteness of God’s love and contrast it effectively to the absolute failing of our own.
June 20th, 2010 at 10:15 am
This is really great! I hope you continue to post every day. I applaude your honesty in your sincere approach to understanding God’s love.
June 20th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
I really like your website. I showed it to my fiance and we both had an unbelievable talk. we are working on a lot of forgiveness and your site has helped open doors. Were not even christians. But who knows what god is doing