Vol 2 No 25 THEO'S DEVOS 062608
1 Corinthians 13 4-6 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. 6It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. NLT
In our verses today we must note an important aspect of the word love. It is the Greek word: agape. This is the word used exclusively to describe God's love and it would help to define it before we go further. One of the best definitions I have seen to describe agape love is: 'a commitment of the will to cherish and uphold another person ' It is not a feeling, it is a commitment. Please bear that in mind as we go through this chapter. In order to differentiate between true and false love we need to focus on the right things and feelings are just not in view here.
Notice that love is three things: patient, kind and honest. The three negatives are descriptions of those things that hinder the positives mentioned. Patience is biblically explained as something to be developed and most of us are just not patent people. Imagine being with someone and finding that patience is a natural part of your relationship with that person. Where you may be impatient in many ways, when with this person, patience just doesn't seem hared to come by. Love produces that kins of ability.
Kindness is in view here as well. Looking forward to being kind toward the object of your affection, as a normal desire is also an element of true love. To not have to make yourself be kind but to just have it emanate from your personality when that other person is in the room is another aspect of true love.
Are you an honest person? Do you feel comfortable being totally honest with the person you say that you love? Where love exists, true love that is, honesty is not difficult at all. To be transparent to that person is a normal desire of your heart. In most relationships, honesty is hard to come by. To truly love is to trust enough to willingly open all to them. That ability to be honest is extremely rare however and it is one of the reasons why true love is also very rare.
These verses also lay out four negative attributes as well, and where they exist, true love languishes. Jealousy, boastfulness, pride and rudeness are the enemies of true love. They are destroyers, all. When they raise their heads in a person's life, lots of other things begin to suffer and the ability to love is one of the greatest. Where they exist, love does not. This is not to say that if you experience any of these in a relationship, you are not in love. It is to say that where they become a normal expression of the relationship, true love may not be there. We can often tell ourselves that we are in love and struggle with these attributes but it just may be that we are in lust and not truly in love. True love expresses itself in focusing on the other person whereas these attributes focus more on ourselves and our needs rather than the needs of the 'loved one.'
One of the biggest problems with the negatives is that they we can actually consider them fun to express. You may not want to admit it but it sometimes relieves our minds to express one or more of these negative attributes. It is rather normal, in fact, for a human to act jealous or prideful. It seems to be a strong part of our fallen nature. To overcome them really requires a spiritual heart operation that only God can perform. To not act in these ways tales help from the Holy Spirit and becomes an act of love from God, through us, to someone else.
Think of someone you love. Go back and read 1 Corinthians 13 again only this time, with them in mind. Only this time, while thinking of them, replace the word 'love' with your first name and see how you feel.. If what you are experiencing is true love it will feel good to perform this experiment. If it feels awkward and difficult to do, it may tell you something about what you have been calling true love. Now remember, we are not talking about feelings here after all but they are indicators of commitments we have made. If you fail this experiment you need to have a talk with God about your circumstance and maybe confide in your pastor or other spiritual advisor. It is not the end of the world. It just might be a big step in the honest direction for you.
Theo
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Love: The Beginning 2
Vol 2 No 24 THEO'S DEVOS 061908
1 Corinthians 12:2.3 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. 3If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.
Before we can uncover the definition of love here in 1 Corinthians 13 we have to understand just a bit more about its potency. The two verses today say some things about love that seem to put it out of reach.
Verse two wonders about the gift of prophecy. We have heard a lot about prophecy through the years and it has been the subject of debate among good Christians for a long time. The aspect of prophecy here is quite clear. To utter a prophetic statement according to this verse it to be in touch with the inscrutable. To be have knowledge about everything. To know all mysteries. What an awesome ability. If I knew everything about everything, you would think that that would include love. I would know all about love. But it doesn't appear as though love is that easily attained or even understood. No wonder we all struggle with it. I mean just what is love? I remember a youth leader who put out a video entitled: “How To Know If You Are In Love.” I bought the video with the intention of showing it at our youth ministry, His House. Of course I previewed the video first and after about 3 minutes, I discovered that it was a rip off and I wasn't going to use it at all. The speaker's first words were: “Well I am cannot actually tell you when you are in love....” OK, so then why go on for another 45 minutes then. In fact the producers cut the video at the end of 45 minutes and the guy had just started his conclusion. Yeah, that's right it just stopped. I think I paid $45.00 for the thing. Just another Christian rip off. I didn't think we were supposed to do that. It wasn't very loving, that's for sure.
Anyway Paul tells us that to know everything, even to know all about love and not have love is worthless. You can be a genius and not be worth much in the eyes of God.
And what about faith. We have seen in Devos past that faith is crucial to the Christian walk. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God,” we are told. Imagine having enough faith to move mountains. To have so much faith that I could give everything away. Now that would be a loving thing to do wouldn't it. Apparently you can do loving things without loving. Interesting to think about. You know that all around the world tonight people will fake love. They will do loving things for ulterior purposes and the motivation is not true love at all. Many a woman will be faked into thinking that some man loves her only to discover that he was using her all along.
Love is a dangerous thing. It can twist our emotions. It can move us to do things that we would never do otherwise. That is why it is so important to know the elements of true love. Someone said that love is a feeling and if the feeling goes away, so does love. I don't believe that. These verses explain love in a far different light. By the time we are done you will know if the object of your affections is one born of love or some other source. I hope and pray that it is a pleasure for you to contemplate the elements of love found here in 1Corinthians 13.
May God bless you as you walk with Him today. You are a blessing to me. Thank you for reading Theo's Devos. I am here for you.
Theo
1 Corinthians 12:2.3 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. 3If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.
Before we can uncover the definition of love here in 1 Corinthians 13 we have to understand just a bit more about its potency. The two verses today say some things about love that seem to put it out of reach.
Verse two wonders about the gift of prophecy. We have heard a lot about prophecy through the years and it has been the subject of debate among good Christians for a long time. The aspect of prophecy here is quite clear. To utter a prophetic statement according to this verse it to be in touch with the inscrutable. To be have knowledge about everything. To know all mysteries. What an awesome ability. If I knew everything about everything, you would think that that would include love. I would know all about love. But it doesn't appear as though love is that easily attained or even understood. No wonder we all struggle with it. I mean just what is love? I remember a youth leader who put out a video entitled: “How To Know If You Are In Love.” I bought the video with the intention of showing it at our youth ministry, His House. Of course I previewed the video first and after about 3 minutes, I discovered that it was a rip off and I wasn't going to use it at all. The speaker's first words were: “Well I am cannot actually tell you when you are in love....” OK, so then why go on for another 45 minutes then. In fact the producers cut the video at the end of 45 minutes and the guy had just started his conclusion. Yeah, that's right it just stopped. I think I paid $45.00 for the thing. Just another Christian rip off. I didn't think we were supposed to do that. It wasn't very loving, that's for sure.
Anyway Paul tells us that to know everything, even to know all about love and not have love is worthless. You can be a genius and not be worth much in the eyes of God.
And what about faith. We have seen in Devos past that faith is crucial to the Christian walk. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God,” we are told. Imagine having enough faith to move mountains. To have so much faith that I could give everything away. Now that would be a loving thing to do wouldn't it. Apparently you can do loving things without loving. Interesting to think about. You know that all around the world tonight people will fake love. They will do loving things for ulterior purposes and the motivation is not true love at all. Many a woman will be faked into thinking that some man loves her only to discover that he was using her all along.
Love is a dangerous thing. It can twist our emotions. It can move us to do things that we would never do otherwise. That is why it is so important to know the elements of true love. Someone said that love is a feeling and if the feeling goes away, so does love. I don't believe that. These verses explain love in a far different light. By the time we are done you will know if the object of your affections is one born of love or some other source. I hope and pray that it is a pleasure for you to contemplate the elements of love found here in 1Corinthians 13.
May God bless you as you walk with Him today. You are a blessing to me. Thank you for reading Theo's Devos. I am here for you.
Theo
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Love – The Beginning
Vol 2 No 23 THEO'S DEVOS 061108
1 Corinthians 13:1 If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal.
If you speak two languages they call you bi-lingual. If you speak three languages they call you tri-lingual. If you only speak one language they call you American. An interesting note here is that there is no indication from anywhere in scripture that there is a language in heaven that is different than here on earth. All speaking by any heavenly character is always known by the earth creature being spoken to. To say that there is some heavenly language that is different than those on earth is not supported by scripture. Imagine what life would be like to speak any language in heaven or on earth. This would not only allow you to communicate with everyone on earth but it would allow you to study books in all languages. The opportunity for knowledge would be astounding.
It is so critical that at a time when we all did speak the same language, God stepped in an confounded that by introducing languages, plural, into the this world. It happened at Babel and it occurred because God saw that mankind would become completely self-centered having this capability. Language is the stuff that clearly marks a culture. It is the common ground of all people within a culture that brings it together and marks it as different from other cultures. All countries are marked by this and it is only the United States that has ever considered a change. The discussion of having a second language be part of our culture is something not known in any other country. It is an indication of the deterioration of our culture, that we contemplate it. I do not wish to imply that English is somehow superior to any other language, I only mean that it is the language of our culture and it binds us together as a country as no other distinctive can. There really is no other aspect of our country that is exclusive to us. When I call a company and they ask me to “Press one for English,” I wonder – Why? Why shouldn't English be the default and I press a number if I speak some other language.
OK so I digressed a bit there but it really is an important point. What our verse today says, however, is that even speaking all those languages means less than nothing if I do not have love. It would be like a meaningless noise. Imagine if speaking sounded like a loud gong. I can feel the migraine coming already. Or it would be like a clanging symbol, another Excedrin moment. You know both these sounds have their place but there is no such thing as a loud gong, or a clanging symbol, solo.
So how do I love others? Listen, I am no authority on this subject but the Bible is. God loves us and He is the only One who can define love. He is love and in 1 Corinthians13, He explains what He sees love as being. In the next few weeks we will look at this chapter and see what God means by love. I hope you find it interesting and helpful. I intend to rethink my idea about love as I contemplate my writing. Pray for me, and for yourself, as we unfold the mystery of love. Ask God that He will guide my fingers as I type the next few Theo's Devos. I am looking forward to it and may God use it to make you a more effective lover of persons. You might want to read the chapter again as we begin this journey together.
Incidentally, I know that some of you are hurting in some way and I want you to know that I am praying for you. You have let me know about concerns in your life and I can't wait to see how God asserts Himself on your behalf. God bless you all.
Theo
1 Corinthians 13:1 If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal.
If you speak two languages they call you bi-lingual. If you speak three languages they call you tri-lingual. If you only speak one language they call you American. An interesting note here is that there is no indication from anywhere in scripture that there is a language in heaven that is different than here on earth. All speaking by any heavenly character is always known by the earth creature being spoken to. To say that there is some heavenly language that is different than those on earth is not supported by scripture. Imagine what life would be like to speak any language in heaven or on earth. This would not only allow you to communicate with everyone on earth but it would allow you to study books in all languages. The opportunity for knowledge would be astounding.
It is so critical that at a time when we all did speak the same language, God stepped in an confounded that by introducing languages, plural, into the this world. It happened at Babel and it occurred because God saw that mankind would become completely self-centered having this capability. Language is the stuff that clearly marks a culture. It is the common ground of all people within a culture that brings it together and marks it as different from other cultures. All countries are marked by this and it is only the United States that has ever considered a change. The discussion of having a second language be part of our culture is something not known in any other country. It is an indication of the deterioration of our culture, that we contemplate it. I do not wish to imply that English is somehow superior to any other language, I only mean that it is the language of our culture and it binds us together as a country as no other distinctive can. There really is no other aspect of our country that is exclusive to us. When I call a company and they ask me to “Press one for English,” I wonder – Why? Why shouldn't English be the default and I press a number if I speak some other language.
OK so I digressed a bit there but it really is an important point. What our verse today says, however, is that even speaking all those languages means less than nothing if I do not have love. It would be like a meaningless noise. Imagine if speaking sounded like a loud gong. I can feel the migraine coming already. Or it would be like a clanging symbol, another Excedrin moment. You know both these sounds have their place but there is no such thing as a loud gong, or a clanging symbol, solo.
So how do I love others? Listen, I am no authority on this subject but the Bible is. God loves us and He is the only One who can define love. He is love and in 1 Corinthians13, He explains what He sees love as being. In the next few weeks we will look at this chapter and see what God means by love. I hope you find it interesting and helpful. I intend to rethink my idea about love as I contemplate my writing. Pray for me, and for yourself, as we unfold the mystery of love. Ask God that He will guide my fingers as I type the next few Theo's Devos. I am looking forward to it and may God use it to make you a more effective lover of persons. You might want to read the chapter again as we begin this journey together.
Incidentally, I know that some of you are hurting in some way and I want you to know that I am praying for you. You have let me know about concerns in your life and I can't wait to see how God asserts Himself on your behalf. God bless you all.
Theo
Monday, June 2, 2008
The Importance of Friends
Vol 2 No 22 THEO'S DEVOS
Proverbs 18:24 There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.
Someone said that in order to have friends you need to be one. I believe that and also believe that friends are extremely important. You can often tell where you are going in this life by looking at the kind of people you bring into your inner circle. We all have 'friends' but what we often call friends are really acquaintances. A true friend is someone you can rely on to tell you the truth even if it hurts and that nothing within that truth will threaten the friendship.
Have you ever had a 'friend' only to have them turn their back on you when something happened that they didn't like. Or maybe you have a friend, or friends, who encourage you to move in a destructive direction. If you do, or had, I must tell you that they were not really friends. We throw that word around too loosely these days as we do lots of words without thinking about what they really mean. If we only used words for their strict meaning you might be surprised out how your vocabulary would change.
A friend, as our verse today states, 'sticks closer than a brother.' You know you can't choose your family but you do choose your friends. This puts the weight of that choice squarely on your shoulders and allows you the flexibility to choose wisely. It also tells me that we may end up having a lot fewer true friends than we initially think we have.
I have had the luxury of accumulating a lot of friends through the years and still pray for them and love to find out what is happening in their lives. It is one of the greatest motivations for Theo's Devos: to stay in touch with my friends in some tangible, helpful way. It is always good when one of you sends a note letting me know what is happening in your life. It encourages me to pray for you and it makes the distance between us easier to handle.
Please be careful who you let get too close to you. Our verse today literally says that a 'friend' can destroy you. Now there are mays that you can be destroyed without dying. You can have your reputation destroyed. I have literally had some whom I thought were friends, due to expediency in their lives, try to hurt me for their own benefit. I thank God for His support and help at those kinds of times because He is the only one you can count on when things go bad. I have also had friends that have gone way out of their way to help me and I will never forget those things that they have done. Many of you are subscribers to Theo's Devos and it is my pleasure to serve you this way.
I sincerely pray that all of you have friends you can count on and friends who build you up and encourage you. May God touch you through them and may He make Himself known in your life by working through your friends. Is there some friend that you could encourage today. Maybe send them an email or write them a note or give them a call. You can't do that enough you know. It just may be that they need someone to reach out to them and you have the opportunity to be that person. You never know what your friends are experiencing. They won't always tell you or anyone else.
May God bless you too as you strive to be a good friend.
Theo
Proverbs 18:24 There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.
Someone said that in order to have friends you need to be one. I believe that and also believe that friends are extremely important. You can often tell where you are going in this life by looking at the kind of people you bring into your inner circle. We all have 'friends' but what we often call friends are really acquaintances. A true friend is someone you can rely on to tell you the truth even if it hurts and that nothing within that truth will threaten the friendship.
Have you ever had a 'friend' only to have them turn their back on you when something happened that they didn't like. Or maybe you have a friend, or friends, who encourage you to move in a destructive direction. If you do, or had, I must tell you that they were not really friends. We throw that word around too loosely these days as we do lots of words without thinking about what they really mean. If we only used words for their strict meaning you might be surprised out how your vocabulary would change.
A friend, as our verse today states, 'sticks closer than a brother.' You know you can't choose your family but you do choose your friends. This puts the weight of that choice squarely on your shoulders and allows you the flexibility to choose wisely. It also tells me that we may end up having a lot fewer true friends than we initially think we have.
I have had the luxury of accumulating a lot of friends through the years and still pray for them and love to find out what is happening in their lives. It is one of the greatest motivations for Theo's Devos: to stay in touch with my friends in some tangible, helpful way. It is always good when one of you sends a note letting me know what is happening in your life. It encourages me to pray for you and it makes the distance between us easier to handle.
Please be careful who you let get too close to you. Our verse today literally says that a 'friend' can destroy you. Now there are mays that you can be destroyed without dying. You can have your reputation destroyed. I have literally had some whom I thought were friends, due to expediency in their lives, try to hurt me for their own benefit. I thank God for His support and help at those kinds of times because He is the only one you can count on when things go bad. I have also had friends that have gone way out of their way to help me and I will never forget those things that they have done. Many of you are subscribers to Theo's Devos and it is my pleasure to serve you this way.
I sincerely pray that all of you have friends you can count on and friends who build you up and encourage you. May God touch you through them and may He make Himself known in your life by working through your friends. Is there some friend that you could encourage today. Maybe send them an email or write them a note or give them a call. You can't do that enough you know. It just may be that they need someone to reach out to them and you have the opportunity to be that person. You never know what your friends are experiencing. They won't always tell you or anyone else.
May God bless you too as you strive to be a good friend.
Theo
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