Monday, June 19, 2006

"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:4-7."  (NKJV)

IDEA: Love is patient.

Suppose you were putting together a list of the characteristics of love.  What would you start with?

In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Paul begins a list of 15 qualities of love with patience.

I. What do you think he means by “patience”?

The word refers to patience with people rather than with circumstances.

Which is easier?  Patience with people or patience with circumstances?  Why?

II. Patience separates love from selfishness or manipulation.

We can “put up” with people as long as they serve our interests.

In Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare wrote:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments.  Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! It is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle’s compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

If it isn’t love, what is it?  It can be

manipulation

selfishness

examples: parents, spouses, friends