11/18/2020 LOVE IS PATIENT
1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 Charity suffereth long, and is kind…. [King James translation]
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hope always perseveres. [New International translation]
Summary
1 Corinthians 13 is part of the epistles (i.e. letters) to the church in Corinth. The Apostle Paul went to Corinth on one of his missionary journeys. It was one of his “stops.” Acts 18:1 notes that Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, where he met a number of people (a Jew named Aquila and his wife Priscilla) and where Paul spoke at the synagogue regularly.
As a guide to the early Christian churches, Paul engages in a number of discourses on topics. Many refer to 1Corinthians 13 as Paul’s discourse on “love.” However, if you were to ask many born prior to 1960, they probably remember 1 Corinthian as a discourse on “charity,” because the King James translation uses the word “charity” while many modern translations of this scripture use the word “love.” When one thinks of “charity” one usually thinks of “giving.” or “helping.”
Whether you think of 1 Corinthians as the scripture on “love” or “charity,” it is probably no mistake that the writers, who Paul identifies in 1 Corinthians 1:1 as himself and Sosthenese1, 1 began the discourse with “Charity [or Love] is patient.”
If you think about CHRIST “giving” HIS life for humanity, despite all of humanity’s continued imperfections, and that HE did this out of love for me and you, it is perhaps easier, to see the connection between “giving” (charity), love and patience. Despite humanity’s failure to “do the right thing” over and over again, right up to the present, CHRIST still gave HIS life. GOD showed an extraordinary amount of patience on the cross for us, while we were yet sinners, in suffering and dying for us on the cross. HIS was long-suffering.
CHRIST’s love was love “in action.” HE gave. HE healed. HE interacted with people. Often when the disciples or others were trying to rush HIM--- keep HIM from taking time to talk with a woman no one else would have talked with,2 or keep HIM from spending time with children,3 or dealing with people outside his borders,4 or spending time with someone everyone else rejected, JESUS stopped and interacted with them anyway.5 CHRIST took time to be with people, minister to them, acknowledge them, and love them. HE gave of himself, HE was patient, kind, not easily angered, not self-seeking.
JESUS’ love was action, time, giving, caring, and sacrifice. HIS giving of HIMSELF was love.