Oak Dale Baptist Church

In 1 Corinthians it talks about what love is and isn’t.   Most of us know it pretty well.  We hear it at weddings and maybe even a few sermons.  However, do we really pay attention to the words that are said?

            We really need to look at the words again.   “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have 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 do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”

            Love is something that always sees the good in things and overlooks the bad.  It is always lifting others up and putting them before ourselves.  We could all use a refresher course from time to time going over this passage.  If we did it more often, I believe that there would be a lot less conflicts in the world.

            I hope that all of you will be blessed this month and God’s love will be poured out in abundance upon you. 

In Christ,

Erik