13 Thoughts for 2013: Part 8 What is love?

You can’t go wrong when you love others.

When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.

(Romans 13:10 MSG)

This verse is the most simple and straight-forward verse of all the verses we've looked at thus far.  As I view this verse in light of all that came before it - I see it as a response to what has come before rather than "a requirement" that we conjure up inside of us.

We have seen:

• the heart of the Father for us
• we are His beloved children 
• that we exist in Him and Him alone
• that our daily actions, the simplicity of life is lived in Him

So from this place we are asked to love.  Christianity has gotten a bad rap that it is people trying to live out a list of rules that they wish to impose on themselves and on others.  In light of the cross, we reflected on last week, we should lift our heads with pride while kneeling in humility before all of our neighbors and ask - how can I show you love today?

So what is love?

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies.

(I Corinthians 13:3-8 MSG)

Living & loving like this comes as a response to the love we first received from Him.

In Christ,