What LOVE is not!

Back in the 1st Century, there was typically a big gong or cymbal hanging at the entrance of most pagan temples. When people came to worship, they hit them to awaken the pagan gods so they would listen to their prayers.

1 Corinthians 13 is Paul is teaching that even if we are blessed so that we speak with the greatest of eloquence in every language, but don't have love, then our life is as useless as this ridiculous act of pounding on a gong to awaken non existent gods.

You see, love is more important than any physical or spiritual gift. Paul teaches that:

·      Love does not Boast: talk with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about one's achievements, possessions, or abilities

·      Love is not Proud: high or excessively high opinion of oneself.

·      Love is not Rude: offensively impolite or ill-mannered.

·      Love is not Self-Seeking: Pursuing only one's own ends or interests.

·      Love is not easily Angered: feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility. Paul is not talking about righteous indignation. Last week watching the super bowl half-time show I really liked the umbrella flowers. They were very cool. Yet, I found myself getting irritated and angry at the way the women were dressed. It has nothing to do with the song (even though we couldn’t understand the words) … I was angry because so many people think it is OK for those women to disgrace themselves. We have become very sad.

·      Love does not keep records of wrongs: evidence about the past.

·      Love does not delight in Evil: immorality, wickedness, and depravity.

We will never be able to fully grasp or be fully known until we learn to love. We love with our actions, with our words and with our heart. Unfortunately, our hands are so full of the past that we can’t grasp the future. We spend so more time on facebook and phony friends then we do on our knees praying for the friends going to a lost and dying eternity.

Living in love allows us to investing in our eternal reward, by seeing the world as God intended it to be, by living what love is and avoiding what love is not. Just imagine how your relationships would change if we loved people more that we loved ourselves.

You know I Love ya, Don