Blatant hatred is being expressed in the world right now.  And as I pondered the message for this week, the Lord led me to a message of February 28, 2016.  So, I will repeat it today as follows.
 
“And this I pray, that you may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment.”  Philippians 1:9
 
We are all familiar with the description of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8b.
Let’s look at it again to see how Paul, the writer of this letter, to the Corinthians lays it out.
 
Paul tells us what love is; what it does not do; what it is not; that it does not keep records; what it does not delight in; what it rejoices in; what it always does and then he gives a conclusion.  This love is not stagnant it is action.
 
Love is: patient, kind
Love does not: envy, boast
Love is not: proud, rude, self seeking or easily angered
Love: keeps no record of wrongs
Love does not delight: in evil
Love rejoices with: the truth
Love always: protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres
Love never fails
(This list is adapted from the NIV translation.)
 
The NKLV reads:
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things.  Love never fails…”
Other translations may word it slightly different, but love here is agape.  It is God’s love, unselfish and self giving!  Read it again!  Only in Christ by the Spirit of God are we able to so love.
 
“Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words” says,
“Christian love, whether exercised toward the brother, or toward men generally, is not an impulse from the feelings, it does not always run with the natural inclinations, nor does it spend itself only upon those for whom some affinity is discovered.”
 
Love seeks the welfare of all--
“Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.”  Romans 15:2
 
And love works no ill to anyone--
“Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.”  Romans 13:8
“Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”  Vs. 10
 
The perfect expression of love is God’s love: it is in the gift of His Son given for mankind!
“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  1 John 4:9-10
 
John makes the natural conclusion in Vs. 11
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
 
In John 15:12 Jesus gives His disciples, in His farewell discourse, a command,
“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
 
Christ Jesus died (laid down His life) that we might be saved!  No greater love has ever been known!  And it will take eternity to know the height, the depth and the width of that love!
 
Thank you Lord God!  Help us to be the expression of Your love to this hate filled world.  Amen