SCANDALOUS
June 3rd, 2022
LOVE IS…Gentle & Consistently Kind to All (v.13:4)
1 Corinthians 13:8, 13, ‘Love never stops loving. It extends beyond the gift of prophecy, which eventually fades away. It is more enduring than tongues, which one day will fall silent. Love remains long after words of knowledge are forgotten…Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope and love—yet love surpasses them all. So, above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.’ (TPT)
Love cares more for others than for self.
I think about parenthood, how ultimately it causes us to be better human beings. Being a mom or a dad, even a grandparent, births not only a child within us, but it births humanity deep in our cortex. Out of the depths of our innermost being and the sinewy constructure of our human frame wells up and spills over emotions we never knew we possessed. We are often selfish human beings, and when a baby comes into our lives, at once—we don’t even have to think about it—out automatic response is to care for their needs. What churns within and gushes out is an incomprehensible love, nurture, desire, belief, tenacity toward the child whom we never thought we would know how to raise, how to guide, how to selflessly love.
While this isn’t always true in all situations, it is more times than not. I am sure we have all been affected by someone who has been abusive toward their children; we have likely all known a child or more who hasn’t known the care and the cherishing they deserve, and it is heart wrenching. In those instances, what the humanity within us desires to do, is to hug them and hold them close, provide for them not only the physical needs they have but also the emotional, mental and spiritual as well. This sprouts from the seed planted inside of us that grows gentleness and kindness.
We have a good, good Father that loves us, His children, whom He desires to spoil with His love, shower with His blessing. He is gentle toward us and He is consistently kind. It is not in His nature to not keep His promises to us, nor to not honor His Word. He even sings over us, and He inhabits our attention, our worship and praise, toward Him. He comes near when we are crushed in spirit and our brokenness is a catalyst for His love. What’s more, He truly desires for you and me what is in our best interest, what is good for us and for our growth. He wants to give us good gifts like grace and hope, worth and faithfulness, not empty, tangible things which fade and perish, but, rather, everlasting life. We are His beloved, the spoiled rotten children of a good, gentle and kind Father.
Philippians 4:5, ‘Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.’ (NIV)
So many weddings happen every year during the month of June; so many ‘I do’s’ are spoken that eventually become ‘I don’t’s’ because we understand so little about love, God’s love, and the gentleness of it, the consistent kindness of it. What would happen if we too loved like that, if we cared more about and for others than we did for our own selves?
