Love Gives

Love Gives
1 Corinthians 13.4-8a
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails.

The qualities of love Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13 all share a common property--giving. Each attribute of love involve giving something, not receiving. Patience, kindness, humbleness, gentleness, forgiveness--these are all evidence of our giving for someone else. This is exactly the sort of thing Christ has called us to do--give. If we could sum up our responsibility to demonstrate love, it would be in these two words: love gives. This is quite contrary to our society today. Love, to the world, is about receiving. In the most common instance, it involves someone saying "I love you" because it makes them feel good. It may be accompanied by sexual encounters or gift-giving. This type of attitude is "self-seeking;" it is not love.

The Bible very clearly commands us to give love. This is a complete 180 degrees from what we expect, but that is why it is true. God's concept of the action of love is entirely different than man's, but we are to obey it. We are to give love. This involves a major attitude adjustment. Love must no longer be a sense of entitlement. It must not expect anything in return. That is the fundamental problem with the world today. But the love that comes from God expects no "favors" in return. In computer programming, there is a concept called a return signature. Basically, a function can be written that expects some specific type of output--be it a number, a series of letters, etc. But there is also a signature called "void" that performs some action but returns nothing. In a way, we must be like a void function--we must love God and the world with all of our hearts, but we must expect no output.

1 Corinthians outlines several ways which this is accomplished. We see that love is "patient, kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not rude, self-seeking, easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth, always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres." We can not adequately describe each of these attributes in detail here, so the best we can do is to memorize them, study them, meditate on them. Ask God what these attributes of love look like when carried out. How does each of them give something?

Ultimately, we must remember that giving is a reflection of Christ's giving. The ultimate display of giving love was demonstrated by Christ's willing sacrifice for the redemption of man. That, then, must be our model for giving love. Let us give love today like Christ gives to us. Amen.

With love in Christ,



Austin Aldrich