As christians, most of us know 1 Corinthians 13. It tells that Love never fails. And that if I do not have love, I am nothing.
Love is such a beautiful thing. It is the strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties.
Love is the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another. Examples are the fatherly concern of God for humankind, or the brotherly concern for others, or a person’s adoration of God.
Recently at a conference in California, Pastor Judah Smith – who is known for ministering to mega-pop star Justin Bieber – was preaching about God’s kind of love, which, he said, can never be practiced by trying, no matter how hard we try.
Smith read a few verses from the well-known chapter in the New Testament: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”
In the Scripture we see that God is love personified. In the story of Jesus, He comes with this unconditional love for humanity. That part may seem illogical in nature.
Pastor Smith continued, reading from verses 4 to 7: “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
These traits seem humanly impossible to show consistently, the pastor told attendees.
That is indeed what many people experience every day. It is quite difficult to consistently show this, faced with every day reality, adversity, problems, and global issues. Yet we should not give up.
Then why did Paul urge them to practice love that is found only in God?
Paul intended to create a “mirror effect,” Smith said. The list of love traits was “not a random collection,” he added. Paul wanted to show them a “mirror” to tell them they don’t look like Jesus but they needed to.
But how? Do not “try,” he said, but just “rely.”
Paul did not suggest some “tweaks,” but he proposed “a radical reordering of their souls,” Smith explained. It is a “supernatural love being proposed here,” which is possible by “transformation of the deepest core of your being.” And that is the only way, he said.
God doesn’t “do” agape, but agape “is” embodied in Him, Smith went on to say.
Only when you accept and receive God’s love can you dispense it to others, he concluded.
Source: http://www.christianpost.com/news/pastor-judah-smith-you-can-practice-gods-love-by-relying-not-trying-137684/
