The Best Way of All Pt 2

1 Corinthians 12
²⁹ Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles?
³⁰ Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not!
³¹ So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts.

But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

1 Corinthians 13.1
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.
³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!
⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!
¹⁰ But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
¹² Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

• Verse 4: Love is patient AND kind;
  Love is not jealous or boastful:
• Treat no one as a trophy or commodity.

Proud or rude:

• 1 John 3.16
  “This is how we know what real love is - Christ gave himself for us.”

• Does not demand its own way:
  Not irritable:

Keep no record of being wronged:

• Not just living ‘in the present’, but living in the present grace and mercy of God.

Colossians 3
¹² Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
¹³ Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
¹⁴ Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.

• I’m called by God and reminded to keep in mind only my debt of love, not what is ‘owed’ to me.

Romans 13.8
Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.

• Remember: I have to keep in mind and keep in communion with the work of Jesus, the cross of Christ.
• All the punishment, forgiveness, grace, and mercy are exclusively from the cross of Christ.
• Personally, this is really hard for me as I’m prone and practiced at remembering the things I should / must forget and forgetting what I must remember.

Does Not rejoice about injustice.

• Don’t celebrate when “it” finally catches up with “them”, even if they practice a lifetime of injustice, don’t celebrate when they get what is deserved.

Rejoice whenever truth wins out:

• Make a practice of praying for truth to win out IN ME.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, always hopeful, always endures.

• Looking ahead, this section reminds me of 1 Corinthians 15.58
  So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

• All the LOVE OPTIONS:
• Janys led this study on how powerful and practical God’s love is in dealing with even the most adversarial / broken relationships:

Love is patient…

• Love someone just like they are.
  Romans 5:8
  But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

and kind…

• Smile. Listen. Share. Let them go first.
• Think of what I would like and do it for them.
  Luke 6:31
  Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

Love is not jealous…

• Don’t compare myself to others, and don’t compare them to myself or my standards either.
• (There is only one real standard and NOBODY meets it but Jesus.)
  2 Corinthians 10:18
  When people commend themselves, it doesn’t count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them.

…or boastful or proud or rude…

• Don’t talk about myself. Make an effort to honor others.
  Philippians 2:4
  Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

It does not demand its own way…

• Be flexible.
• Make preferences for others and their interests.

Galatians 6:3
If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.

Romans 12:3
Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.

It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged…

• Don’t be so touchy and don’t hold grudges.

Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out…

• Don’t wish anyone ill will. Genuinely hope for others.

2 Peter 3:9
He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

1 John 3:18
Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance…

• Don’t be known for my doubts, don’t let others catch my stress. Pass on hope, joy and encouragement.

2 Corinthians 1:4
He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

Philippians 4:5
Let your gentleness be evident to all.

LOVE IS Summary:

• Can we be kind and just smile?
• Can we talk about Jesus instead of ourselves?
• Can we hope for another person?
• Can we pray for someone else?

Who is the one you’re always praying for?

• Keep praying.
• Who is the unlikeable one you’re trying to love?
• Keep loving.
• Who is on your last nerve?
• Keep hoping.
• Who is the one you have no more patience for?
• Pray for God to change you not them.

• People are not a problem to be solved or a battle to be won or even a spiritual attack.
• They are just simply someone for us to love.

1 John 4 (CSB)
⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
⁹ God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
¹⁰ Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
¹¹ Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.
¹² No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us.
¹³ This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us:
He has given us of his Spirit.