photo #5706179

"Love Is..."On more than a few occasions the Apostle Paul urged Christians to “love one another.” In his letter to the church at Corinth he took time to explain exactly what that love looks like. Here’s how he put it: Love is kind and patient, never jealous, boastful, proud, or rude. It isn't selfish or quick tempered. It doesn't keep a record of wrongs that others do. It rejoices in the truth, but not in evil. Its always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting, and most of all, it never gives up!Now the tendency is to look over that list and grade ourselves: “Okay, well, I think I’m good for eleven of the fifteen—which is better than a lot of people, so…” Nope. Doesn’t work that way. These are all facets of love, just as there are multiple facets to a diamond. Either you have the diamond or you don’t, and either you are filled with the love of Christ or you aren’t.Or, think of a chain with fifteen links. What good is it if a couple of links are weak or broken. The chain isn’t good for anything. By the same token, when a person is filled with the love of Christ it bleeds through in all these different ways. Consider a pineapple. Bore a hole in it anywhere and what leaks out is pineapple juice. There won’t been pineapple juice most of the time but occasionally some lemon juice. Doesn’t work that way.You need to understand this because when you portray love sometimes and not others, it sends the wrong message to those who heard you call yourself a Christ-follower. Pretty soon they realize Christ-followers are no different from the rest of society.Which turns them away from Jesus, and identifies you as a hypocrite.