Beyond Sunday: The True Nature of Love
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[Editor's note: Beyond Sunday is a Monday refresher to carry you through the week.]
Focus Verse of the Week
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. (
Commentary
It is worthy of note that the qualities of divine love are almost entirely of a passive character.
The first eight qualities pointed out by the Spirit are the expression of this renunciation of self. The three that follow mark the joy in good which sets the heart free also from that readiness to suppose evil. This is so natural to human nature, on account of its own depth of evil, and that which it also experiences in the world. The last four show its positive force, which-the source of every kind thought-by the powerful spring of its divine nature, presumes good when it does not see it, and bears with evil when it sees it, covering it by longsuffering and patience; not bringing it to light, but burying it in its own depth. This depth is unfathomable, because love never changes.
We find nothing but love where it is real; for circumstances are but an occasion for it to act and show itself. Love is always itself, and it is love which is exercised and displayed. It is that which fills the mind: everything else is but a means of awakening the soul that dwells in love to its exercise. This is the divine character. No doubt the time of judgment will come; but our relationships with God are in grace. Love is His nature. It is now the time of its exercise. We represent Him on earth in testimony.
(Adapted from Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible. by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown)
A Thought to Keep
The world celebrates "love" during Valentine's Day, but what are you doing to point them to the the God who is love in all that He does? Spend time in prayer today about how God can use you to share His grace.