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The word of God is alive and active! When I maintain my relationship with that Word by continually reading it and letting it speak to me, sharing it with other believers, I am given new understandings. The Lord has given me a fresh insight on 1 Corinthians 13, the “love” chapter. I encourage you to read it with me.
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth…”
Charity is the perfect love of God, His people loving others the way He loves. This description of charity simply means absence of “self”. Read each phrase and consider its meaning. Think about how you would behave in your relationships if you were not seeking your own rights. Think about how others would be drawn to God if they saw only the love of Jesus expressed in your concern for their betterment. Only when we forget “what about me” and take on God’s way of loving can we attain these attributes.
This isn’t easy. Paul said, “I die daily”. We must, too. The natural man can have all knowledge, all faith, and be devoid of charity. The man who has forgotten himself and embraced the love of God in his heart and in his actions is the man who sees not through a glass darkly, but face to face. He is the one who has left off childish things and has become a man. He is the person who no longer sees in part, but to whom the perfect has come. The “perfect” is the pure and selfless love of God, expressed through Jesus.
“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
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Charity
