Love

I Corinthians 13 - If I could speak all the languages of 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 the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

This portion of scripture is known as the "Love Chapter", "The Way of Love" and "Love is the Greatest". It is included in Wedding Ceremonies, we hang it on our walls, place it in picture frames or it is written on book marks but do we really understand what this "Love Chapter" is telling us?

As I have been reading this chapter for a couple of months now I am challenged and broken because so many days I put the emphasis on what I can do, my gifts or abilities, my purpose and forget that although God has blessed me with abilities to be used for His Glory, and yes He has a plan & a purpose for me, He has placed a higher value on the condition of my heart....my "Love Level".

The honest, raw truth that I am realizing is....No matter what I do -If I do not have love it means nothing. Real, genuine love...not faking it, because My father knows me (Psalm 139) He knows when I am walking in love. Wow, that really hits home and makes you take a reality check.

Love should be my guiding force - the reason behind everything I do and say. Love should be so pressed in my heart that it can't help but overflow from my life.

(MSG) vs3 - If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

It is all a bunch of garbage, a pack of lies & a waste of time - If I am not loving. I won't be able to stand before my Heavenly Father one day and say, but look at all I have done, how I served you faithfully, I was even a Pastor's wife, see Jesus....look at me. I am so convicted because they will mean absolutely nothing if I do not have love for others. I find that the days when it is the hardest for me to love is when I am not trusting God, when I have taken my eyes off of Him.

John 13:34-35 - "Love each other just as much as I love you. Your strong love for each other will prove to the world that you are my disciples."

Deuteronomy 6:5 - "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."

Mark 12:30-31 & 33 - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

Luke 6:27-35 - "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,...If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked."

John 14:15 - "If you love me, you will obey what I command."

John 14:21-24 - "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me."

John 15:13 & 17 - "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. This is my command: Love each other."

I Corinthians 8:1b -"love builds up."

I Corinthians 16:14- "Do everything in love."

Galatians 5:13-15 - "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other."

vs.22-23 - "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

Ephesians 4:2-3 - "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."

Romans 12:9 - "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it."

Galatians 2:20 - "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

We love like Jesus only when His poured-in love spills out and the ripple effect will not only satisfy me but will flow to others. "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."