It's All About Love, Love, Love, Love, Love

Today we studied the “love” chapter in 1 Corinthians 13. Personally, I prefer Ecclesiastes 4:11-13 when it comes to scripture for weddings, but in my work I see 1 Corinthians chosen time and time again.

I love learning the history behind scripture, and what was going on at the time when Paul wrote about love to the Corinthians. Pastor Matt did a great job of this today. Paul’s instruction is not meant for couples and romantic love. Instead he is telling us how we should love one another as Christians – “agape love”.

They will know we are Christians by our love, right? If they know we are Christians, and we come off as being crass, uncaring, and too busy to really listen – what does that say about who we are? What are we doing to show Christ’s love towards our fellow human beings? How might we be examples of His love as we walk our earthly journey, and anticipate the heavenly kingdom? Will we hear the words “well done, good and faithful servant”? I certainly hope so, but agape love does not come as naturally as the love a mother has for her newborn child. Agape is not a new term in our household, but it is a love that is easy to forget. Agape is love based on decision – we need to decide how we will act towards one another. It is a conscience effort, and it is so easy to get wrapped up in one's self, that we forget about others and their need for love.

Today I learned that when someone calls to talk… I need to walk away from what I am doing, or at the very least keep my fingers off the keyboard. I am good at multi-tasking, but this can be a bad thing. For if I am typing, while listening, am I listening merely with my ears, when I should be listening with my heart? I need to become a better listener. I need to make a conscience effort, and do better at being an example of Christ’s love to others.

My blog title today comes from a song by Steven Curtis Chapman. An excerpt really tells us what we are here for – to love one another as Christ loved us.

This is the reason we were made
To know the love of our Creator
And to give the love He's given us away
Yeah, the Maker, and the Father,
and the God of everything
He says to love, love, love
He says love, love, loveLove, love, love
'Cause after all, it's all about love
Gods says love, love, love, love, love
It's all about love, love, love, love, love
Everything else comes down to this
Nothing any higher on the list than love
'Cause after all, it's all about love

One thing Jesse and I learned a while ago about the “love chapter” of the bible, was to replace the word “love” with “Christ.” Since I wrote a LOT about this subject, I will be sharing some thoughts on how Christ has shown His love to me in the next few days of “On My Way – Journey to Heaven.