Jeremiah 31:1-6 (NIV)

¹ “At that time,” declares the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”

² This is what the Lord says:  “The people who survive the sword will find favor in the wilderness; I will come to give rest to Israel.”

3 The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying:

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.  ⁴ I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt.  Again you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful.  ⁵ Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; the farmers will plant them and enjoy their fruit.  ⁶ There will be a day when watchmen cry out on the hills of Ephraim, ‘Come, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.’”

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NIV)

¹ If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  ² If I have the gift of prophesy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails.  But where there are prophesies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.  ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.  ¹² Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.

We continue to look at the Church of Corinth, which was full of amazing talent, gift people who were puffed up with pride and consequently not very good in loving others.

In Corinth, Paul is rebuilding the Church because they were distracted by their knowledge, gifts, pride, infighting, and the general lack of love.

Paul is telling them (us) it is possible to be very gifted and perform wonderful things and not be a follower of Christ.

The Corinthians believe their gifts are the means of how well they are following Jesus.  Paul is saying the correct barometer for following Jesus is their love of others.

Spiritual gifts are not a direct indication of our relationship with Christ.  When God brings about a heart change that is toward God, love begins to show up in a true believer’s life.

A loving person is patient, warm, forgiving, tells the truth, are focused on the care of others.

1 John 2:7-8  Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning.  This old command is the message you have heard.  Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

John is trying to say when Jesus begins change in our lives, we began to demonstrate a different dimension of love; one becomes capable of love, beyond what you had been capable of before.

Paul says, “Love does not seek its own things.”

When children are trying to differentiate themselves in this world, they may say, “I can’t do it myself,” “I don’t need your help.”  We belong to ourselves, this is the essence sin.  Sin is the human condition, I want to be my own master, my own savior, I shouldn’t have to answer to God.

The sin of pride is so influential on us we think God should do what we want, our heart is sinful and is self-justifying in our actions.

Some people believe they are sufficient in and of themselves.  They don’t want God running or ruining their lives.  In other people who are religious have pride and the same self-sufficiency with a religiosity unseen.

Before we come to God, everything is self-justifying.  For example, we may work hard to justify ourselves we may be constantly doing in order to affirm our worthiness to the world, (self-justifying).

If we are easily angered, there is a reason for that.  It is because we are defending an image we have of ourselves as competent, or generous, or correct.  When our image is threatened, we snarl our teeth.

In contrast, a humble heart knows we’re a failure but loved by God.  So, then we are free to love the failures around us, who wronged us, they are broken in ways we cannot see, so we can extend grace to them.  The same grace and love we have been given by God.

Where do we get this love and grace?  We look to the Cross and what Jesus has gone through and what He accomplished.  Jesus is the only love that ever has and ever will trust all things.  Jesus’ love endured the Cross, and it preserved and was trusted on the Cross.

Ephesians 4:22-24  “Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires…and…put on your new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

You and I are loved with the sort of love Paul was describing to the Corinthians.  They were loved, but were competing they had forgotten about Jesus’ love in a quest to seek the best for themselves.  What they needed, what we need, is to live in the love of Christ, which in turn enables us to give hope, and hopefully love that looks more and more like Christ’s love, to others.

God bless.  Continue to ask the Christ of the Universe for the love and grace He has freely given us to spread that grace and love in our daily journey, interacting with this fallen world.