Love

1 Corinthians 13:4-8,a

4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails . . .

The Greek language has a number of words for “love” and the one used in this text is “agape” which refers to “God’s love”. God is love in His essence and that means you can’t copy Him, instead you must receive Him and surrender to Him living His love through you. As you read these qualities of love pray, “God (or Jesus), I want to love like You, so I yield myself to You to control me and be patient, kind, not jealous, etc . . . through me as You express Your life as these love qualities.” If you decide to study the list and then try to make yourself do them, you will fail because you can’t copy God.

If you surrender to Him, receiving Him as life, He will be Himself to you and through you, the love qualities will flow out of you powerfully and amazingly touching people all around you. Again, this is called “Spiritual Reality.”