Love Is Not Selfish
Love Is Not Selfish. As this list of what love is or isn't from 1 Corinthians 13 continues to grow, I don't know about you, but I get more and more uncomfortable, and wonder if there is any real love in my heart!
1
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am
a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers,
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith,
so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give
away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have
not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way.
1 Corinthians 13:1-5a, ESV
Love Is Not Selfish
As this list of what love is or isn't from 1 Corinthians 13 continues to grow, I don't know about you, but I get more and more uncomfortable, and wonder if there is any real love in my heart! Love does not insist on its own way or, in other words, love is not selfish!
My son
and family (including my lovely five and a half month old, gorgeous,
granddaughter) are visiting over the holidays. I remember those baby
days with my own children. It does not take long with a newborn to
realize that this lovely, adorable child insists on his or her own way, and
will continue to do so, with total disregard to the effect it causes on
its family (especially Mom and Dad). As baby Christians, we are so like
that newborn; sometimes, even as mature saints in the Lord, we are
still like that newborn.
I was going through the teen years with
my last two children when I originally wrote this devotional and was reminded again of our natural propensity for
insisting on our own way. It is just not natural for us to put others
before ourselves. Yet, look at the marvelous example we have in Christ.
Was
it easy for our Lord to leave His glorious throne in Heaven to come to
this earth in the lowly form of a newborn? He knew that this was the
only hope for the redemption of mankind. Love does not insist on its own
way!
Was it easy to walk upon this earth for three decades while being hated and scorned by the religious leaders? Love does not insist on its own way! Was it easy to walk that dark road of Calvary and suffer and die on the cross for sins He did not commit? Love does not insist on its own way!
Let us pray today that God would teach us to truly love God, our
husband, our children, our friends, and even our enemies, remembering
that love does not insist on its own way! Love is not selfish!
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