Love Is Patient
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 11351 |
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April 13, 2014 |
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 "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" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
Many people think 'being patient' is to wait for something or someone for a long time. But if they love it or the person, they don't find it hard or boring to be patient.
Having true love for someone is to take delight in being patient with him. Even the longing and aching make the love much deeper as long as the waiting is in patience. Then, what can we do to achieve the love's patience?
1. Spiritual love recognized by God
Love can be categorized into two kinds: spiritual love and fleshly love. God gives us spiritual love. It seeks the benefit for others. It doesn't corrupt and it leads to eternal life. It is true love. On the other hand, fleshly love seeks its own benefit and it changes and corrupts.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 defines spiritual love by its 15 characteristics. "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." God accurately measures the extent to which His children act according to the traits of love.
Say we quantify the extent of spiritual love in us from 1 percent to 100 percent. When we achieve a complete percentage of 100 percent, it can be said that our love has attained a level that is at the level of God's 'perfect love'. If we keep one percent of the Word of God, it corresponds to one percent of spiritual love's level that is given to us. If 50 percent of God's Word is kept, then it corresponds to 50 percent of spiritual love being fulfilled. The grace and power that is given by God is different to the extent that we accomplish this spiritual love that is recognized by God (John 14:21).
2. Patience is the basis of spiritual love
Why is the character of patience the first listed in the characteristics of love? This is because we have to be patient for a long time to achieve spiritual love perfectly. If one accomplishes 10% of spiritual love and just stops due to lack of patience, he can't reach a higher level. If you keep 10% of the Word then you are at the 10% level of spiritual love and you receive God's love and grace at a level of 10%. The other 90% of you must then belong to dark forces of Satan.
Patience is also divided into two kinds: the kind of patience that is recognized by worldly people and spiritual patience. When something is upsetting, worldly patience is suppression of anger and having tolerance toward the stimulator or stimulus. This kind of patience is being patient in evil. However, spiritual patience is not like this. It is being patient in goodness.
God, in whom there is no evil, has nothing to put up with and therefore, nothing requiring 'patience'. But for our better understanding, God uses the expression 'being patient'. We will also have nothing requiring patience after we bear all things in goodness and truth, and cast away all evilness. We will be able to understand and forgive anything. God's patience is the patience that doesn't need to be expressed as 'patience' because His patience is out of His love.
3. God's patience seen through Apostle Paul
Before meeting the Lord, Apostle Paul took a lead in persecuting and imprisoning believers in the Lord Jesus. How, then, did he change after he met the Lord?
He prayed for his people's salvation earnestly such that he said in Romans 9:3, "For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." This confession shows that the level of his love had come close to that of God's love. Until he reached this level, with expectation, God was patient with him. What kind of patience did God extend to him? Before being called by the Lord, Apostle Paul was a person with a laudatory background.
He was born to a good family and though he was a Jew he had citizenship in Roman Empire. He was also educated according to the Law under Gamaliel who was a teacher of the Law and admired the most at the time. He was blameless as to the righteousness which is in the Law. But his self-righteousness in the Law was a stumbling block to achieve the work of God.
So he underwent many trials and finally he demolished his self-righteousness and knowledge. Then, he said that he would no longer boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. God chose this Paul, set him as the apostle of the Gentiles, and accomplished His will through him. Paul received God's power and performed many wondrous things while he himself suffered many persecutions and afflictions. But since he believed that God had made him whole through all the trials, he could exalt in tribulations and overcome them with perseverance.
He said in Acts 20:24, "But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God." This implies that he changed to become a person who worked with the heart of God.
4. In order to achieve spiritual patience
Just as 1 Corinthians 13:7 reads, "[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things," if we believe all things in hope, we will be able to endure all things and achieve patience.
1 Corinthians 13:4 also talks about perseverance. It is a personal level of patience with which one can bear people who stone him though they receive love from him and endure with hardship, and various difficult troubles. Meanwhile, 'love bearing all things' in 1 Corinthians 13:7 refers to bearing all things such as things against the truth in the Love Chapter—1 Corinthians 13, that is, bearing all things against spiritual love. In other words, it is to bear all things including acts of unkindness, jealousy, or arrogance; avoid seeking personal benefit or advantage, overcoming provocation and not taking into account a wrong suffered. It is not to rejoice in unrighteousness. However, it doesn't bear all of them for no reason. As the following verses say, we achieve hope in faith and share love in hope. Then, we can bear all things. Why is it love to believe all things? If a married couple loves each other from their hearts, they naturally believe, trust, and respect each other. Even if something causing doubt occurs, they see each other in goodness and have trust. Trust is an evidence of love. We used to be sinners who were destined to eternal death, but we have received the grace of salvation through the great love of God. Hence, we should also believe all things even if something seems to be lacking. Without love, we can't do it. Only when we believe with love can we have hope in all things.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if we can just see people with spiritual love as God sees, even if they appear hopeless, they can be encouraged and run. I pray in the name of the Lord that you will bear patiently in the truth, achieve the perfect love of God, and give everybody love.
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