The Marks Of Real Love
Real Love "Suffers Long."
Real Love "Is Kind."
Real Love "Does Not Envy."
Real Love "Does Not Parade Itself."
Real Love "Is Not Puffed Up."
Real Love "Does Not Behave Rudely."
Real Love "Does Not Seek Its Own."
Real Love "Is Not Provoked."
Real Love "Thinks No Evil."
Real Love "Does Not Rejoice In Iniquity."
Real Love "Rejoices In The Truth."
Real Love "Bears All Things."
Real Love "Believes All Things."
Real Love "Hopes All Things."
Real Love "Endures All Things."
The Love That Never Fails
Paul was speaking of faith just a moment before. He says, "If I
have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not
love, I am nothing. "So far from forgetting, he deliberately
contrasts them, "Now abideth Faith, Hope, Love," and without a
moment's hesitation, the decision falls, "The greatest of these
is Love." when we meet
it first, is stained with blood.
Peter says, "Above all things
have fervent love among yourselves." Above all things.
And John goes farther, "God is love."
And you remember the
profound remark which Paul makes elsewhere, "Love is the
fulfilling of the law." Did you ever think what he meant by
that? In those days men were working their passage to Heaven by
keeping the Ten Commandments, and the hundred and ten other
commandments which they had manufactured out of them.
Christ
said, I will show you a more simple way. If you do one thing,
you will do these hundred and ten things, without ever thinking
about them.
If you love, you will unconsciously fulfil the whole
law. And you can readily see for yourselves how that must be so.
Take any of the commandments. "Thou shalt have no other gods
before Me." If a man love God, you will not require to tell him
that. Love is the fulfilling of that law. "Take not His name in
vain." Would he ever dream of taking His name in vain if he
loved Him? "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Would he
not be too glad to have one day in seven to dedicate more
exclusively to the object of his affection? Love would fulfil
all these laws regarding God.
And so, if he loved Man, you would
never think of telling him to honour his father and mother. He
could not do anything else. It would be preposterous to tell him
not to kill. You could only insult him if you suggested that he
should not steal -.how could he steal from those he loved? It
would be superfluous to beg him not to bear false witness
against his neighbour. If he loved him it would be the last
thing he would do.
And you would never dream of urging him not
to covet what his neighbours had. He would rather they possessed
it than himself. In this way "Love is the fulfilling of the
law." It is the rule for fulfilling all rules, the new
commandment for keeping all the old commandments, Christ's one
secret of the human life.
|