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1 Corinthian 13 - 10/5/2008 11:15:14 AM
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Prairiehiker
Posts: 2097
Joined: 12/11/2007
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There's been a few threads in the site about love and the definition/meaning of love. Most of them points to how to demonstrate love. 1 Corinthian shows us how to do love. I think I've memorized these verses from having read it in so many wedding programs.
My point is how do we demonstrate these qualities of love to the people closest to us, if we ever demonstrate them at all. I can say that I've failed time and time again when it comes to being patient. Then, it goes down hill from there...esp when I'm challenged, lol. Well, I think I'm slowly getting better, and only through my personal walk with God that I'm able to do these things.
So, let's break it down. How do we show love when we are challenged to act differently? How about not easily angered? Or not keeping a record of wrong when they keep repeating doing things that hurt you? Are we not self seeking when we share our lives with our partners? How do we always protect? Always trust? Always Hope? Always perseveres? Or do we? Do we strive to do these things and be all these things or do we admit that we've not reached perfection yet therefore we can't give nor seek to be loved perfectly?
1 Corinthian 13: 4-8
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails.
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The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm 19: 1
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To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven. King Solomon
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RE: 1 Corinthian 13 - 10/5/2008 11:51:52 AM
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willfs
Posts: 316
Joined: 12/28/2007
Status: offline
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The verbs in these verses deal with stuff we do on a daily basis. Patience: sounds like what I have have to do with those who are around me all the time. Kindness, goodness, ..... faithfulness! No boasting, pride, short fuses. It all begins with how we treat those we interact with on a daily basis. Character is developed in the daily grind but revealed in, as you mention, the challenging times.
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RE: 1 Corinthian 13 - 10/5/2008 12:03:03 PM
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AngelInWaiting1983
Posts: 10655
Joined: 6/8/2007
From: South Carolina
Status: online
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I have always loved this passage of scripture. My favorite verse is #8. Love doesn't fail. If we keep how react in a godly way and show compassion to those around us and those we love I believe it covers it all. I have problems with the patience thing, but God is truly teaching me about it now.
_____________________________
Reflecting with Terri
Winter time! Yeah it gets cold down south!
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RE: 1 Corinthian 13 - 10/5/2008 1:22:36 PM
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makarizo
Posts: 2973
Joined: 4/13/2005
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Wanting God's very best for an individual. .... in your heart.
that is how we love.
How we demonstrate this is by serving Christ.
"in as much as you've done it to them, you done it to me" Mt 25
dinner is ready
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RE: 1 Corinthian 13 - 10/5/2008 1:40:10 PM
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NiceGuy
Posts: 641
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: The Great State of Confusion
Status: offline
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***Incoming Message from the Big Giant Head ***
I'm not sure that I'll have time to field any responses to this, but I've spent a lot of time thinking about this over the past year and would like to share some thoughts before I return to my hiatus.
1 John 4:19 says "We love because He first loved us."
God is the author of love, so if we want to understand how to demonstrate love for one another, we must first learn how to accept God's love for us.
Those who come from backgrounds of abuse or neglect may find it difficult to accept His love, and may try to live their lives seeking to earn His love through their interaction with others. And yet, God's love doesn't have to be earned. It is offered freely and from no earthly broker.
I believe these verses in Corinthians about love aren't necessarily an instruction book to be used to guide our interaction with others, as is the most common interpretation. Rather, they're more a list of symptoms we can be mindful of in order to be aware of the health of our relationship with God.
Am I always patient? If the answer is no, why not? I must seek God's face to find the answer. Am I easily angered? If yes, why? Do I always trust? In whom do I trust? There is only one mediator between God and man, and that is Christ Jesus. Yet, we often try to give others the power to mediate for us. Our pastors, our friends, our families, and our Christian brothers and sisters are not the mediators of God's love for us. The more barriers we erect between ourselves and God's love, the more difficult it will be to respond in love to the people around us.
The rest of the passage says this:
quote:
1 Corinthians 13:9-12 (NASB)
9For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
10but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
11When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
God knows us fully, but we do not yet fully know God. I see these verses as a call to seek His face and, though I look at Him through a mirror dimly, to learn how to accept His love for me.
There is also an element of submission. If I do things under my own strength, I'm going to foul things up every time. I'll be impatient, I'll be rude, I'll be untrusting, etc. I cannot abide by the principles given in verses 4-8 without a proactive approach to seeking an understanding of God's love for me. The more I seek Him, the more I understand His love for me. The more I understand His love for me, the more compelled I am to submit. The more I submit, the easier it is to respond in love to those around me. The wonderful thing about it all, is that His love is so vast that we'll never reach the end of it or find it boring or stale even though we will spend our entire lives seeking to understand it.
It has become evident to me, that loving is only possible when we know how to be loved. And that ability comes only from seeking God's face. Paul emphasizes this point here:
quote:
Ephesians 3:14-19 (NASB)
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
15from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
16that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
NiceGuy 
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Look, I brought a Sombrero! Now we can both be "cool"! - Hobbes, of Calvin and Hobbes
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