Real Love

“Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Ahh, 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the most quoted chapters in the bible. Countless wedding vows include it’s beautiful words, any sermon ever uttered on the topic of love use it as a foundation, and yet so many of us just don’t seem to carry it over into our daily lives.

What a lot of Christians seem to forget is that spiritual maturity isn’t measured by how long you’ve been a Christian, how much you know about the bible, or how often you go to church. Spiritual maturity is measured by the way you treat other people. It’s measured by the love you allow to operate through you. One of my absolute favorite Christian songs is, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” For me, the whole teaching of Christ is summed up in that one statement.

1 Corinthians 13 tells us very specifically what REAL love is. If we are truly walking in love we treat each other with courtesy and respect. This scripture also tells us that love does not envy, it’s not proud, it keeps no record of wrongs. Are you patient with the person at the checkout register that may be moving too slowly for you? Are you supportive of your coworkers? Are you quick to forgive and slow to become angry? I’m not perfect in this area by any means either, but I did make a decision to really strive to be better at it today than I was yesterday.

When you really try and you seek God on ANY matter you will gain control and victory over it. I think it’s also important to note that none of the descriptions of love have a thing to do with feelings. That’s because love is a CHOICE. You can choose to show love toward people even when you don’t feel like it. Today, I want to encourage you to choose to show compassion and be considerate to others. Not only will you feel better about yourself but you’ll experience a peace you never have before. Knowing that you did right by people, even if they aren’t doing right by you – God sees that and He will reward you with greater blessings than you can even dare to dream of!