Love Does Not Insist on Its Own Way

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV)

When we are loving others with this love which prefers what God prefers, then we are going to treat others in like manner as God treats us. And he is patient with us, but his patience does not mean tolerance of deliberate and habitual sin. His patience does not mean that he says nothing or that he doesn’t discipline us, or that he doesn’t teach the church to exercise biblical discipline of its members who are refusing to repent of deliberate and habitual sin. Patience just means slow to anger, not quick-tempered. But it also means that we don’t give up on people, and we keep praying for them.

And kindness never involves lying to people, not even telling what some people refer to as “white lies.” But it doesn’t mean that we just blast out everything we think and feel in meanness and thoughtlessness and cruelty towards others. For speaking the truth must also be coupled with love. But sometimes, depending on the circumstances, we may have to use stronger terms, like Jesus did with the Pharisees, because of the stubbornness and rebellion of those who are deliberately and habitually sinning against God and other humans while professing Christ as Savior. And that is kindness.

When we love others with the love of Christ, we are not to be envious of others who have what we do not have. Some people out of jealousy and envy turn to being spiteful, resentful, bitter, unforgiving, and even might murder another person out of jealously, like Cain killed his brother Abel. And we are not to be boastful and prideful, thinking we are better than everyone else. For we all are born into this world with sin natures, in the image of Adam, and it is only to the glory of God that any of us live righteously.

And we are not to insist on our own way, unless it is truly God’s way, and it is the way of truth and righteousness and moral purity and honesty and uprightness, etc. We need to be those who stand on truth and who refute the lies of the enemy, even if we are accused of wanting to have it our way. But we need to be willing to compromise, where necessary, on non-essentials, i.e. on things that don’t really matter for eternity. We should be those who submit to one another in areas that are not against God.

And, although I may have already covered this somewhat in the paragraphs above, we are never to be those who rejoice in wrongdoing. And this includes we should not be those who give our loyalty, devotion, and commitment and support to those who are doing evil to others, either, whether in real life, or in the viewing of movies and videos which glorify doing evil to others and immorality and adultery and lying and stealing, etc. For we are not to rejoice in evil, but in good, as God defines good.

And we are to rejoice in the truth, not shun it, not ignore it because it makes us uncomfortable. The truth shouldn’t be spoken of as evil while evil is being spoken of as good, but that is where things are now in the world and in the worldly church, too. They don’t like the gospel Jesus taught and that the NT apostles taught, and so they alter and dilute it and teach some truth along with lies which are mainly the twisting of truth but with non-truths added into the mix. For they prefer the lies to the truth, because the lies allow them to keep living in deliberate sin and still claim heaven as their home.

Now when this says that love bears all things and believes all things and hopes all things and endures all things, this is not teaching tolerance of sinful practices and believing everything people say to us. For we are not to tolerate sinful practices, but we are to confront them, and call for repentance. And we are to test everything people say to us against the Scriptures to make certain that they are telling the truth. And we need to believe the truth and not the lies. And we are not to put our hope in things or in people not of God, but we are to believe God and put our hope in HIM.

You Loved Me

An Original Work / December 3, 2019

A song based off the poem by the same name @ Original Works

Music and lyrics by Sue Love @ Original Works & Tosin Iyawo Ogaga

Vocals by Tosin Iyawo Ogaga & Sue Love

When I was lonely and afflicted,

You were there to pick me up.

You took me in Your arms,

And You held me tenderly.

Your love embraced me.

Your grace sustained me.

When my heart cried out to You

In my fear and my despair,

You never turned away,

But You let me know You loved me.

Your grace forgave me.

You did not shame me.

Then, when I answered the call,

“Here, Lord, send me.”

You sent me to where I must be.

Your mercy held me, did not fail me.

All this, You had planned, to use me.

And, when all trials and scorn

Came to test me.

You gave me all that I would need.

You strengthened me so I’d not fail You.

Your kindness blessed me, it touched me.

And, when I needed the church 

To lift up me,

To hearten me so I’d not fail,

You blessed me with folks who would love me.

Their presence with me, Your praise hailed!

And, when I walked through the valley

Of the shadow of the death,

And tears flowed from my eyes,

Still Your kindness was there for me.

Your touch, it healed me.

For I believed You.

When now I think about the ways,

Of the many, many ways

That You in Your great love

Show me that You’ll always care for me,

My heart, it thanks You,

And gladness fills me, fills me.

https://vimeo.com/377807796