Being Patient

 DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

BEING PATIENT

1 Cor 13:4-7

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.

NIV

This is the most excellent way. Of course, this is one of the scriptures that is popular at weddings, and it sounds so good, but are these attributes of love realistic to achieve. Even though it is a well-known portion of scripture it might be a good idea to remind ourselves just how it is we are supposed to love one another in the body of Christ. This is the Agape type of love which again seems to be a well-known word, yet how does it differ from the Agapaoo and the Philadelphia type of love, which are basically the only words used for love in the New Testament. This Agape love is that affection, goodwill benevolence love. It can be used for person to person, God to men, love of God toward Christ, and Christ toward men. If we just looked at this definition of love seen as God’s love toward us, it would make perfect sense for that sounds exactly how God loves us. But when we use this Agape love toward people to people, other than in a marriage it makes it sound a little more difficult to see. However, there is a Greek word for love within the family that is not used in the New Testament, so then we are left with living within a Christian marriage and within the body of Christ expressing this Agape type of love toward each other. Let us examine each aspect of this love and see how we stack up. We first look to love being patient. The Greek word is makrothumeoo, with a direct meaning to be of a long spirit, not to lose heart. However, when it is used in conjunction with Agape it would carry the meaning, to be patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others; to be mild and slow in avenging; to be long-suffering, slow to anger, slow to punish. In essence, it would appear that because we have chosen to love someone, that has to be applied to both the body of Christ and to a marriage. We had a pastor years ago who said that people fall in the mud, but they do not fall in love, they must choose to love. So then when we choose to love our neighbor, which certainly includes all the others in the body of Christ, or at the very least, the others who attend the same local church we do, we need to apply this love toward all of them. Being patient with all the others in the church is not dependent on them being patient with us. Of course, this applies within our marriage, yet we would think that because we all love the Lord, we would all love each other and thus exhibit bearing with the offenses of others, and being mild-mannered and slow to become upset with each other, thus not just showing patience, but actually being patient, which must come from the condition of our heart. Therefore, when we decide to be obedient to God and love our neighbor as ourselves, then we would do more the show patience because we would be exuding patience from within.