Golden Nugget - The Power of Love Part 1 & Worship with Terry MacAlmon

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 lists all the qualities of love.  If you have difficulty to love or want to test your level of love, be sure to measure yourself against these standards: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

This passage is actually a description of God, for He is love this is His character.  He is patient and kind etc.  Evaluating yourself against these standards is therefore actually evaluating yourself against the character of God, i.e. how far have you progressed to becoming like Him, like Jesus.

Let’s take each of these characteristics and make them applicable to our lives, keeping in mind that love is not a feeling, but something you do.

Love is patient.  Impatience, therefore, is a loveless act.  How patient is the Lord with you.  I'm so glad He didn't give up on me, for it took me years to get rid of many things that grieved the Lord.  His amazing patience kept Him persevering in disciplining me while He waited patiently for me to get the idea and change my ways.  Do you have a similar experience with the Lord’s patience with you?  How about your patience with your spouse, friends, children, work colleagues, the government, and the like?  Patience with people shows your trust in the Lord that He can change people and mend relationships.  He can help you through situations that test your patience.

Love is kind.  "You don't know what people are like," you may say, "do you know how difficult it is to be kind to rude people?"  Yet, you expect the Lord and other people to understand your moods, don't you?  And the Lord does stay kind but firm to you in spite of your bad behaviour at times.  He did say in Matthew 7:12 to do to others as you want them to do to you and that you should love your enemies (Matthew 5:44).  Kindness demands getting rid of your pride at times, but the results and fruit of being kind is out of this world.  You reap so much kindness and favour from others.

Love does not envy.  We read in James 1:14-15: Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.   Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.   Sinful thoughts lead to sinful behaviour.  Envy is a thought.  Thoughts need to be taken captive and made obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).  This means that whenever a thought, that is not acceptable by Biblical standards, enters your mind; you should consciously take it captive and line it up to Biblical (Christ's) standards.  If you don't do it, that thought will steer your life in an ungodly direction causing you to grief the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) and be disciplined by the Lord.

Say, for instance, you are envious of someone's skill.  If you don't apply Biblical truths regarding this and realise that you have received different gifts and talents, your envy will cause ill and loveless feelings towards the person.  This will lead to loveless and sinful behaviour towards the person which could shipwreck your relationship - cause it's death (James 1:15).  Envy is, therefore, a thought that could lead to hostile behaviour and the harming of relationships if not dealt with at its conception.

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Let's worship with Terry MacAlmon