Love

One afternoon during Omnibus [history/literature/theology class], when I was in 7th grade at DMCA, Mr. Purcell asked us what the opposite of love was.

Of course, we all answered "hate" – which, much to the surprise of our 7th grade minds, was incorrect.

Pride. The answer is pride. This took awhile for me to reason through, at first. But I understood it more as I thought about it, and as God has been teaching me through 1 Corinthians 13, and other passages, I understand it even more.

Pride is not just stuck up people. Pride is wanting the glory for yourself. And by "glory", I don't mean "worship", or "regal honor" like some people see the word glory.

We see these huge contrasts in Christian movies, books, and devotional stories. There’s the obvious “sinner” who says, word-for-word “I want to WIN. I want to be in the center of attention!” And so we think “That’s what I’m not supposed to be like. Okay, easy. I don’t do that. No pride? check.”

And, we basically write ourselves off as pretty good Christians who do the right things.

But there are so many little things. Pride is anything that puts you before something else. It’s what satisfies your wants and desires. If you are putting anything that makes you feel comfortable, happy, and satisfied when there are things you could be doing for others and for God, that’s pride.

No, I don’t mean things like eating, sleeping, taking medicine to make pain go away, etc. I mean things like, reading a book instead of doing homework. Doing things you want to do instead of what you should do. That’s pride. Because you’re putting your wants first.

Love, on the other hand, is selfless. It thinks only of God and of others. It reaches beyond any emotion, or even the selfless love of friends for each other. It is selfless to everything.

1 Corinthians is screaming that in every verse.

Verses 1-3: No matter what kind of possession, ability, or anything that we have – if we’re not selflessly using it for God, if we’re using it to satisfy ourselves, to make us feel good – we’re Nothing. [and what makes us do it for ourselves? Pride.]

Verses 4-7: If you look at each one of these words [suffering long, kindness, not envying, etc], each of them requires you to put someone besides yourself first. ANY need/want/desire that you have…it doesn’t come first. You have to forget that.

Verses 8-13: If you have your focus on anything else, you will fail - because those things will pass away. But Love Never Fails.

I know if I write out each verse and talk about it, you'll quit reading, as this post is already rather long. But I encourage you to go read 1 Corinthians 13, and see what God teaches you. It's amazing.

PS - if I what I'm saying isn't right or something, please tell me. =)