13 Dec 2014 by Kim Yung CM –
Humans love, but they do not have it down to perfection. The faults in others are easily recognizable while the wrongs others have done to us aren’t easily forgivable. As we progress in this world, we have been advised to build walls around us in order to protect ourselves, but at the same time, the walls built serves to make us cold towards one another. Vulnerability isn’t in our dictionary because we love, and yet we hold back.
John 13:34
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
Jesus shared the verse above in John and it was given as a new commandment (not a suggestion) to all of humanity because He believed that we can do it. In the Bible, we are taught that adhering to rules can only bring us so far; that love does the rest and that the rest is by far the most significant part of our walk in this world.
Jesus constantly conveys, to let go of law and let love happen: to let go of the pursuit of certainty, to let go of possessions, to let go of pride, to let go of reputation and ambition, to let go also of obsessing about laws and doctrines. This letting go is what the fundamentalist fear the most. To a fundamentalist, it implies chaos, disorder, anarchy while to Jesus, it is the beginning of wisdom, and the prerequisite of love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
Christian life is impossible if you do not abide by Jesus. According to Mark 10:27, we were told “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God”. The Bible continues to repeat this instance once more in a different manner as cited in John 15:1-10. God is the vine and we are the branches and because of that, we need to be branches that bear fruit; we need to abide by the father and the son for only then, whatever we ask shall be done. If we do not however, we will not be able to reap the goodness of God and will eventually shrivel up and fall away.
God is love and love is more important than spiritual gifts, more important than knowledge, more important than faith, more important than generosity, and more important than all the things that you might accomplish for the kingdom of God. Love is much more important than we realize hence the need to practice love in our everyday lives.
This may not be an easy task but once you begin to put this knowledge into practice, you’ve already dealt with a significant part of the difficulty. The best place to begin is in your home, and in your surroundings, even when things may be difficult. We should not only look into our own interests but also the interests of others, we should not only look at our own burdens, but also the burdens of others in order to fulfill this. When you begin to think of others instead of just yourself, you will begin to become unselfish. Make love a daily routine and soon enough you might eventually find it flowing to many other people in your life and even in your work environment.
To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:20-21)
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonour others, 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.8 Love never fails.
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” – Theodore Roosevelt.
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