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1 Corinthians 13:4

NASB	NLT	VOICE
4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant.	4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud	4 Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not envious, doesn’t boast, brag, or strut about. There’s no arrogance in love;

What Love is and Is Not

Love is patient. The Greek word Paul uses here is makrothumei which implies a willingness to endure tough circumstances and people without retaliation. This type of patience is essential for maintaining unity within the body of Christ. Love is kind. Love brings about a desire to do what is good for others with a gentle and gracious disposition.

Love does not envy. Love isn’t about wanting to have what others have. Love seeks the best for others and celebrates their successes. Love does not boast. Love is not an arrogant showing of your own achievements or qualities. Love is about building others up. Love is not proud. Love doesn’t get inflated with our own self-importance. Love lifts others above us and seeks their welfare.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: With learning some of what love is and is not, how does it represent your understanding of love from a biblical perspective, and a life perspective.

Lift Others Up, Not Squish Them Down

True love does not compare itself to others or doesn’t look to elevate itself. Love doesn’t prioritize one person over another in a relationship. So often we see relationships where one person is celebrated for their successes, and other is silenced or is moving in the background through life. No attention is brought to them at all because all the limelight is on the one who wants their ego inflated, their achievements celebrated, and their feelings validated by others. True love, as shown by God, is about building others up. It’s okay to be proud of your work, but we need to make sure they don’t become our identity. When they become our identity, they start to get into our heart and soul and replace everything that God has placed within us.

True love is about building others up. Reminding yourself that God’s love is about how we were raised from death to life through the sacrifice of Christ. We were dead to our sins and unable to reach eternal life with God in heaven. We respond to God’s salvation with our deep love, lifting Him up. We do that through following his commands and building the Kingdom of Heaven down on earth. It happens through our love and compassion towards others, care for God’s creation, and the ability to share the Good News of the Gospel to each other. It reminded me of when we see celebrities on the red carpet and everything, and they share light on current real-world events that are happening right now. I recently saw a clip of Mark Ruffalo on the red carpet, sharing the tragedy of what happened to Renee Good. While I often look at situations like that with a grain of salt, it’s a reminder to me that we must use our platform to lift up any injustices that happen in the world. To bring attention to what’s going on, recognize why we need to be upset at this situation, and how we need to bring change into the world in order to keep this from happening again. This is one way love “is not envious, doesn’t boast, and isn’t proud.” It uses our influence to not center ourselves, but to focus on those who are hurt so they can experience justice and healing.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What is one thing that happens in this life that you would like to see changed and why?

PRAY Action

Praise God for the love He gifts to us. To be able to receive the same type of patience and kindness that Christ shared to the world.

Read Exodus 34:6

Ask God how you can reflect this world to those around us. To see how we can seek the best for others. To focus on lifting others up instead of our personal recognition. To see how we can see the best in each other.

You are loved! Above everything that the world and those in it can say, you are loved more than anything by our heavenly father.

Next slice of manna: The Strength of Agape Love || Ephesians 4:2 || Manna for the Mind #317