When we think about love and what it means to love others, we often think about being kind, doing nice things for people, and caring for others. Patience is not often one of the first emotions that come to mind. While we may not equate patience with love, Scripture teaches that patience is, indeed, part of loving those around us, especially in times when patience is difficult.
You might have heard 1 Corinthians 13 read at a wedding before, but the message in this Scripture is much broader than the context of marriage; it is about how followers of Christ are to love each other. Paul begins this chapter of 1 Corinthians by explaining just how great that love is. After explaining the greatness of love, he defines the word. Of all of the definitions he could give for love, Paul began by saying, "love is patient." I do not know about you, but I probably would not have started defining love with patience. Exhibiting patience is a large aspect of what it means to love.
Patience, for many of us, does not come naturally. It is often easier for someone to lose their temper and become frustrated than practice patience. Patience is a discipline that we can build on and practice every day. Every day that we wake up is a new opportunity to grow in patience in situations that threaten to stir up impatience in us. The good news is that we are not alone in our quest to become more patient. God is with us and will help us as we seek to become more patient people. Patience is specifically listed in Scripture as one of the traits that the Holy Spirit develops in followers of Christ. Let's lean into God today, asking Him to give us His patience as we show love to the people around us.
Take a few moments to think about your own life and when you feel the most impatient. When you recognize the times you feel most impatient, or even the people you often feel most impatient around, you can start to make progress toward patience. What is one practical thing you can do to practice patience when you begin to feel impatient? Let's show love to the people around us by our patience, starting today.
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. 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. 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.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 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.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
