THE LOVE WALK

By Pastor Mitch Horton | October 2006 | Posted in • Archives | (0) Comments Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, (36) “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” (37) Jesus said to him, “’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (40) On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:35-40). A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. (35) By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. (8) He who does not love does not know God, for God is love (1 John 4:7-8). Love is the sum total of all that is displayed in the character of our Heavenly Father. His nature and attributes are wrapped up in an incredible and selfless desire to help, bless, and heal. In the human experience, we give and receive love from others, but nothing this life offers compares to the unconditional, self-sacrificial love offered to us by our God. The above verses indicate that love fulfills all the Old Testament law commandments to please God (the Ten Commandments). Jesus gave His disciples an additional commandment to the ten, which if obeyed, would fulfill the ten and would be the true indicator of Christ likeness (See Romans 13:8-10). There is no spiritual growth without growth in love! Spirituality is not determined by Bible reading, lengthy prayer, church attendance, or the amount of social cause volunteering. Spirituality for the New Testament believer is shown by love that is demonstrated in daily life. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death (1 John 3:14). The Apostle Paul addressed carnality in the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. He told them that he could not speak to them as spiritual people, but had to handle them as carnal or body-controlled instead of Spirit-led Christians. He told them that envy, strife, and division classified them as carnal believers, and that they still needed the milk of the word, just simple teaching, so that they could grow out of the babyhood state. He said that as long as these fleshly reactions ruled them, they were still behaving as men and women who were not yet born again! Understand that God’s kingdom operates on the foundation of love and faith, and that Satan’s kingdom operates on the foundation of fear, doubt, and unbelief. The results of what strife will do and how it opens the door to the enemy are clearly seen in James 3:16 (Amplified): For wherever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition), there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices. When we choose to step out of love into fear and strife, we open the door for satanic assault on our relationships, and hence, much hurt and anguish in life. Strife and discord fuel darkness and enable Satan to bring harm. In the same way that oxygen fuels a fire, so envy and strife fuel Satan’s kingdom. Cut the oxygen, and the fire dies; cut the envy and strife, and Satan’s kingdom loses its power source in your relationship challenges. When we as Christians choose the love way over the strife way, we invite God to come into our practical day and bring changes in how we treat others. When we choose love, we literally bring solutions from the kingdom of God into situations of hurt, pain, and discord. Outside of the love way, we are in the dangerous area where Satan can assault us, where the thief can steal, kill, and destroy. But walking in love will cover us with heaven’s protection and enable God to work in life’s most challenging circumstances! Jesus introduced the concept of love to the disciples in Matthew 5. He introduced the concept of loving enemies in the harsh Old Testament environment of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Instead of treating people the way they treat us, He introduced the kingdom principle of love to His disciples: Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you, for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not tax collectors do the same (tax collectors were known to steal from the common person)? I’m sure that when Jesus’ disciples heard His new ideas on how to deal with hurtful people, they were like a deer in headlights, shocked! This love way no doubt seemed foreign and strange to minds accustomed to an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. As Christians, we march to the beat of a different drummer! We are commanded to love! Our witness to the world hinges on what we do with love! 1 Corinthians 14:1 (Amplified Bible) reads: Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire this love, make it your aim, your great quest…The greatest thing in life is to love and be loved! 1 Corinthians 16:14 admonishes, Let all that you do be done with love. We’re commanded to mimic God with our love walk in Ephesians 5:1-2; we are to clothe ourselves in love as stated in Colossians 3:14 (when you clothe yourself with something, it’s the first thing seen by others when they encounter you); we are to love one another fervently with a pure heart (1 Peter 1:22); we are commanded to have intense and unfailing love for one another, a love that will forgive and disregard the offenses of others (1 Peter 4:8, Amplified). Throughout the New Testament, there is an emphasis of love that should exude from the lives of believers. The Greek word for the love I’ve been addressing is Agape. Agape is an unconditional, self-sacrificial love that loves others not based on what they do, but on the basis of God’s character towards them. Agape love can love the most trying, difficult, hard to get along with people without looking for any response from them. There are no conditions a person has to meet when loved with this Agape love of God. Agape love is also self-sacrificial, in that it puts its own needs, wishes, and desires last, and puts others and their needs first. Agape love produces a strength of character that overcomes fear and believes the best of every person. God deposited in you and me this Agape love when we were born again! Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God is placed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:5). Here’s the challenge; God places Agape in our human spirits when we are born again. But we are spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Our spirits are born of God, but our souls (mind, emotions, and will) and bodies remain largely unaffected! After we are born again, we must retrain our bodies and minds and bring them in line with God’s will for us (See Romans 12:1-2). Our minds are largely at odds with the will of God. Romans 8:7 reveals that the carnal mind, or the mind ruled by the flesh, is the actual enemy of God and resists God’s will. Our minds are set on self-protection and self-care at the expense of others. Phileo is another Greek word for love that explains this carnal, natural mind and its tendencies. Phileo love is a love that loves what brings it pleasure. It is a love centered in the pleasure brought by another. When the pleasure another person brings ceases, this love ceases too! Phileo love is the natural human love that is familiar to all of us. We all have experienced phileo love. But the big problem with phileo is that it is frail and can easily turn to anger and hatred when not pleased! It can quickly turn from being nice and kind to being hurt, sensitive, angry, vindictive, and cruel. Because our minds are steeped in this natural, selfish phileo love, it takes much effort to allow this Agape love placed in us in the new birth to come from our human spirits through our minds and into our relationships. You will not be able to love with Agape love just because you read about it, or hear a message about it. You must make a decision to walk in Agape love every day of your life! To do this, there must be time spent absorbing the characteristics of love into your mental processes, until the self–centered phileo love is replaced in your thought life with unconditional, self-sacrificial Agape love. The next few issues of Victorious Living will be intensive in explaining this Agape love. I encourage you to read them and meditate on the truths from God’s word until your mentality is saturated with the characteristics of Agape, and it becomes normal to walk in this new and living way! I made a decision over 30 years ago to allow Agape love to control my conduct. It’s been a growing journey, and I’ve found that this jewel called Agape love can grow until it crowds out selfishness, fear, strife, hurt, sensitiveness, touchiness, pride, ambition, malice, anger, unforgiveness, and rejection. Come and go with me the next few months as we discover the treasure of Agape that God has deposited within us! By Pastor Mitch Horton | December 2006 | Posted in • Featured Content | (0) Comments In the last issue, we began discussing the importance of Agape love in our lives as Christians. To function in the kingdom of God, it’s necessary to flow in Agape love. On the other hand, Satan’s dark kingdom is based on strife, envy, and self-centeredness, and brings with it confusion and every evil work. Our natural minds are steeped in self-centeredness instead of Agape love. If left alone without being renewed, our natural minds will crowd out any attempt to walk in the Agape love of God. For our minds to be renewed to this love which has been placed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, it will be necessary for us to take time to meditate on and ponder the characteristics of Agape on a regular basis. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 describes in detail the characteristics of this new love. Let’s dig in and examine them now. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 reads, Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; (5) does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; (6) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; (7) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (8) Love never fails… The first characteristic of Agape found in verse four above is that love suffers long. The Greek word for suffers long is makrothumia, and means to be long tempered. It is the willingness to restrain yourself for the sake of another – giving up your own rights and privileges. How many times have we lost our temper over petty things? Love endures hardships in life and relationships without becoming hard to live with. Love can go through challenging circumstances with a patient smile, because it expects God to work in them. Many people suffer long alright, but they are not patient and kind while going through the challenge! Next in verse four is that love is kind. The Greek word for kind is chrestotes – an active, not passive, gentleness. This means that a person who loves will show a sincere interest in others and their affairs, and then actively seek their welfare. A person motivated by Agape will go out of their way to look for ways to help another person. They don’t sit by wishing things could be better. A person moved by love’s kindness is moved to action to bring help and aid. Do you act this way when undergoing the challenges of life? In the book, The Life of Faith by Mrs. C. Nuzum, she relates, Love works by being kind even under long, continued suffering – real, deep suffering brought upon us by someone else – Love will be very kind to that person.1 The third characteristic of Agape is that love does not envy. The Greek word for envy is the word zeloo, and from this word we get our word our word jealous. Agape is not jealous in its relationships. A person walking in Agape is not focusing on themselves; they are focusing first of all on their relationship with the Lord, then putting themselves and their needs last. A jealous person is thinking only of themselves and how another person’s actions are affecting them! A person who is jealous is careful to hold onto and maintain their own rights and possessions at all costs. Again, Mrs. C. Nuzum comments, It [Agape] does not desire the position, honor, power, benefits, favor, esteem or blessings that others have, but is glad to see other people enjoy blessings, and would rather help them to get more than to take from them anything they have.2 The fourth characteristic of Agape is that love does not parade itself. The Greek word for parade itself is perpereuomai, and comes from the Greek word perperos, which means a braggart, or a person who parades themselves and their accomplishments and talents before others. This is a person who loves to show off. A person who is insecure in themselves looks for ways to be elevated in others’ eyes. When a person is secure in God’s love and who they are in Christ, personal accomplishments and talents are simply tools by which to glorify God, and there is no need for self-glory. Personal bragging is really founded in personal pride! Being secure in God’s unconditional love and acceptance frees us from the need to gain approval from others, and frees us from the need to show off. Being secure in love also frees us from the need that some have to put others down with sarcasm or cutting comments in order to make themselves look better. With Agape in force in our lives, we find it easy to keep quiet about genuine achievements. To quote Mrs. C. Nuzum again, Love does not think, I know how things ought to be done- my opinions and advice are better than the opinion and advice of others – I live better, am used of God more, know more than the other person.3 The fifth characteristic of love is that love is not puffed up. The Greek word for inflate is the word phusioo, and means to inflate. A person with Agape ruling them has no need for others to see their accomplishments. A person living in Agape may acknowledge success, but knows that all success comes from God. No self-congratulations are necessary. Though Agape doesn’t show off or need affirmation, it is also important to note that true humility can accept genuine thanks and applause for good performance. I learned this in my own life almost 30 years ago after performing the special music during a Thursday night church service. Someone came to me and told me how beautiful they thought my voice was and how well I had performed the song. To which I replied, It wasn’t me, brother, it was just the Lord! My friend who had complimented me then abruptly took me to a side hallway and told me that I was actually walking in a false humility, that if I were truly self-effacing and humble, I would say a simple thank you to any person complimenting my performance. I should afterward get alone and give God all the glory for using me to bless others, deflecting the thanks privately to Him who helped me. The last characteristic of Agape that we will examine in this issue is that love does not behave rudely. The Greek word for rudely is achemoneo, and means to assume a negative form, or to act in an unbecoming way. This word has to do with proper social graces. A loving person will not do or say things, or assume attitudes of which later he or she will be ashamed, or that would bring shame to Jesus and to the kingdom of God. Love never acts in an ugly, shameful way, with crudeness, violence, off-color language, or anything else disrespectful. A person walking in Agape will be diligent to do what is appropriate for the moment or the occasion. Agape always maintains good manners in all situations. To get real with this one, a person walking in Agape will never display course or crude behavior in public (cursing, slang, off-color language, body noises such as burping, flatulence, excessive or not enough clothing, etc.) Our present culture desperately needs some lessons in this! Take some time to meditate on the characteristics of Agape during this Christmas season. The world is looking for us to be the salt and light we’re destined to become! We’ll continue in next month’s issue. By Pastor Mitch Horton | January 2007 | Posted in • Featured Content | (0) Comments We'll continue to discuss the characteristics of Agape in detail from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 in this issue. In our last two issues, we've been discussing the love (Agape) of God and how it works in our lives. God is love. The more we develop spiritually, the more we will walk in love. Our flesh will fight this walk of love, but we must renew our minds and allow it to rule our daily behavior. Each of us as believers has been given a rich deposit of love (Romans 5:5), and we must become aware of it and use it so it will develop in us. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 reads, Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; (5) does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; (6) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; (7) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (8) Love never fails… We will begin our discussion this month with the fact that love does not seek its own. Agape is not self-seeking in that it brings with it a self-last characteristic! Agape causes us to seek the welfare of others before ourselves and does not calculate what benefits we may gain in return. We become others minded. As Mrs. C. Nuzum states in her book The Life of Faith : How many of us, when we have a real right to a place, time, honor, benefit, or possession, refuse to strive for it, refuse even to keep it, but cheerfully, gladly let another have it. For instance, this quality allows us to keep cool when we're not recognized for difficult work we accomplish for our company, or when someone else is recognized for work that we performed. It allows us to be genuinely excited when we are passed over for a promotion and someone else is promoted with less skill and ability than we have. When Agape rules supreme, we lose sight of ourselves, and think of God and others first. Next, love is not provoked. The Greek word is paroxuno and means to sharpen alongside, or figuratively to exasperate. It means to rouse to anger. This is when we get upset at another's actions or words, and we become sharp, pointed, and irritable in our responses to them. Anger stemming from offense is in view here as well. Psalm 119:165 reads, Blessed are they who love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. Again to quote Mrs. C. Nuzum: If I am offended, no matter how much cause I have to be offended, the problem with me is that I have not the love which nothing will offend. Love thinks no evil. The Greek word here is logizomai and means to take an inventory. It means to make a list in your mind of what someone does to harm or bother you or to remember when someone does you wrong. Agape keeps no record of wrongs. I think that the Amplified Bible of 1 Corinthians 13:5 sums up this characteristic of love best: Takes no account of the evil done to it: pays no attention to a suffered wrong. This characteristic is perhaps one of the best gauges of whether or not we're walking in love. We have left the love realm when we start holding others' offenses against them and start making lists in our minds of their offenses against us. I was ministering to a man who had problems in his marriage many years ago. He sat in my office and began to tell me how difficult it was for him to live with his wife. He began to mention a plethora of problems he had with her. I decided to sit back and let him talk for a bit. I was taken aback by his next move. He stood up from his chair with a stack of computer paper in his hand, the kind that was joined and folded together. As he stood he said, Here is a list of each offense my wife has committed against me. As I examined the page after page of paper, I saw for each offense one line with a date, a time, and the nature of the offense. His action to indict his wife of all these "crimes" against him proved his own guilt of self-centeredness! This is a great example of the opposite of what we should do to others. Instead of remembering his wife's offenses, he should have made a decision to take no account of them, and to treat his wife as if she had never done wrong. The flesh loves to brood over past offenses. But love will move us away from the past, and will lead us to forget what others have done to harm us, and will urge us to treat them as though they had never harmed us in any way. Many years ago while attending Bible school, I worked for a large grocery chain that was unionized. The winter of my first year there, a section of the labor force in the grocery chain decided to go on a strike to protest their benefits package. I was in charge of the night crew at the store, and decided to cross the picket line and go to work in spite of the opposition of union employees. One of the men who worked in the area that called the strike was holding up a sign in the picket line and challenged me as I went to work, calling me all sorts of names. I just smiled at him each day as I crossed the line and went to work. When the strike was over, this man that had made the harsh comments to me came to the front door of the store the first morning back from the strike and knocked so I could open it and let him in for work that day. When he saw me open the door and heard me greet him with "Good morning," he acted as though I was the invisible man, and walked past me without speaking. Later, before I left work, I saw him in a circle of people talking and walked up to the group and briefly entered the conversation. I made a comment to this man, and on purpose he acted as though I had said nothing and began abruptly talking to another person in the circle of people. For weeks thereafter, I was invisible to him. He never acknowledged my presence or spoke to me. He intended to ignore me to rub in the fact that I crossed the picket line. I remembered the first day he acted this way that I was to walk in love and treat people as though they had never wronged me; that I was to take no account of the evil done to me; that I was to pay no attention to a suffered wrong. I decided to see what the love of God would do in this situation. I remembered that 1 Peter 4:8 (Amplified) says that love forgives and disregards the offenses of others. I greeted him each morning for weeks with a hearty "Good morning" as I called him by name. I spoke each time I saw him in the store. And I said not one word to anyone else about how he was treating me. He continued his invisible man treatment towards me for many weeks. One day weeks later, I opened the door for him, expecting the same cold shoulder I had received in the past. But this time, he greeted me with a "Good morning, Mitch," and a hearty handshake. And thereafter, he was warm and pleasant again, and conversed freely with me and others. I never mentioned the incident, and I did not bring it up to him. Love had won! As a young man in my early twenties, this incident taught me an invaluable lesson as to the power of agape love. Love never fails! We do have the ability to love the unlovely and the cantankerous! You may be involved in a difficult home relationship or a troubled relationship at work. It may be a relationship with a family member or neighbor that has become testy. Be the person that chooses to walk in love, choosing not to take account of the wrongs committed against you. Treat the offending party as though they had done no wrong. Treat them the way you want to be treated yourself. Act in love towards them. Ignore the emotions of revenge or ill-will. Focus on loving with this supernatural agape that God has placed in your spirit. Meditate on 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 until it oozes out of you in words, tones, thought, motives, and actions. Don't wait on the other person to change or improve; you set the tone of the relationship with agape, and never one moment cower to the self-centered ways of the flesh. It may take time, but you'll find that love always wins. We can't make decisions for others, nor can we make them change. But we can live in such a way that nothing they do or say affects us. Their negatives simply roll off like water off of a duck's back! And in return, we sow acts of love. The end result in our lives will be peace, joy, health, and blessing. The only thing this costs is the giving up of fleshly, selfish responses that harm and that give the enemy room to kill, steal, and destroy. It always pays to obey God. Make your choice today to be a lover. And then watch as God works supernaturally on your behalf! __________________________________________________________ Resources & Endnotes 1. Mrs. C. Nuzum, The Life of Faith (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1928, 1956), p. 85 2. Ibid, p. 85 3. Ibid. By Pastor Mitch Horton | February 2007 | Posted in • Featured Content | (0) Comments I am continuing my series in this issue as we discuss the characteristics of the love (agape) of God found in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8: Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; (5) does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; (6) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; (7) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (8) Love never fails… In our last lesson, we found that love "takes no account of the evil done to it: pays no attention to a suffered wrong (Amplified)." This is perhaps the best way to test ourselves as to whether or not we're walking in love. When we take no account, we treat others as if they had done nothing wrong to us! It's a test to the flesh, but this heart motivation gives us the ability to love the unlovely and unlovable ones! It sets the believer apart and enables us to be the salt and light that Jesus has called us to be! Some may think that acting as though someone did you no harm is a sign of weakness. But it's just the opposite; it's a sign of great inner spiritual strength! Love is NOT weak, it IS unselfish! Many have asked me over the years if there is ever a time to stand up and deal with negative behavior in others, and the answer is revealed in the next characteristic of love, found in 1 Corinthians 13:6: "Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth." The Amplified Bible translates this phrase as follows: It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Weymouth's translation reads: "She finds no pleasure in injustice done to others, but joyfully sides with the truth." The Living Paraphrase renders it: "It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out." I call this the "other side of love." Love stands for what is right, and will stand up for others when their rights are being violated. Love will not stand by idly when God and His standards are being attacked. Love will confront wrong-doing in deference to the good of all involved! How can you tell whether to "turn the other cheek" or to challenge a situation? Here's the deciding factor. When others do you wrong, you don't retaliate. Remember, love doesn't take account of the evil done to it; doesn't pay attention to a suffered wrong. But love will hold accountable those whose actions hurt others. Love always puts others first. And when someone is being hurt or unjustly dealt with, love will come to their defense. To put it another way, when someone hurts me, I take no account of their actions, and treat them as if they did nothing wrong. But when they hurt someone else, I will stand for what is right and step in and act so that others will not be hurt. Love will challenge the behavior of the alcoholic who is being irresponsible and leading his family into poverty or extreme debt. Love will challenge the person who abuses a child physically, emotionally, or sexually, and will do what is necessary to stop the hurtful actions. I've called law enforcement on a number of occasions when I saw that laws were being broken and pain was being inflicted on the innocent. When I called the authorities, I was really acting out of Agape love, because love "finds no pleasure in injustice done to others, but joyfully sides with the truth." I have stepped in and challenged husbands who for many years physically and psychologically abused their wives. I've encouraged parents to confront the irresponsible child in their 20's that lives in the home and doesn't work. The parents were actually acting out of selfish motives to allow this behavior to continue! They were only thinking of themselves, and not of the needed maturity in the life of their son or daughter. It seems so mean for the mother eagle to push the baby eaglet out of that nest and watch it seemingly fall to its own death. But if mother eagle didn't force the eaglet to fly, it would be dependent on the mother for life, and would eventually die when the mother could no longer bring it enough food! So out of instinctive motherly love, the eagle knocks her baby eaglet out of the nest over and over again, and swooping down, catches it on her back just before it hits the ground. Proverbs 27:5 reads: Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Today's English Version makes it clear: "Better to correct someone openly than to let him think you don't care for him at all." Love wants what is best for the other person, even if at the moment it takes a tough stand. Today we call it tough love. Jesus is our Savior from sin, and He is also our example of living in a fallen world. Notice that he didn't smile and shake hands with the hypocrites selling their wares in the temple. Rather, He took out a whip and drove them away. He overturned their tables for money exchange, let loose the animals they were selling, and challenged their ungodly, deceiving actions! Did Jesus walk in love? Of course He did! Jesus called the religious leaders of His day hypocrites and white-washed graves full of dead men's bones! Why did He act that way towards them? Because He loved them enough to be real and honest with them and loved others enough to expose the leaders' wrong behavior lest others become infected with it and fall into the same trap! In 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15, Paul tells the believers in Thessalonica to have nothing to do with a person who is purposely acting in an ungodly way. He also tells them that a person who doesn't work (and is able to) should not be able to eat for free. He tells them not to fellowship with a believer who is living in a divisive, ungodly way, so that the deceived believer will be ashamed of himself and repent! "And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother (2 Thessalonians 3: 14-15)." On the surface, that seems unloving, but a closer look would reveal a heart desire to rescue a believer that may be headed down a path of destructive behavior. In Titus 3:10-11, again Paul asserts tough love on a man who has been told to correct his behavior repeatedly, and just simply refuses to listen. He tells the church there in Crete to have nothing to do with him: "If anyone is causing divisions among you, he should be given a first and second warning. After that have nothing more to do with him, (11) for such a person has a wrong sense of values. He is sinning, and he knows it (Living)." In 1 Corinthians 5, we find Paul dealing with a man who is involved in an immoral relationship with his step-mother, and is flaunting his actions in the church in Corinth. Read the entire chapter, and you'll find Paul acting in love as he turns the man over to the devil so that his spirit will be saved. He then tells the Christians in the church to have absolutely no fellowship with this man until he repents! In Hebrews 12: 5-11, we find that God chastens and deals with those he really loves. And in Revelation 3: 14-20, we find Jesus telling the church in Laodicea to repent of their lukewarmness or He will vomit them out of His mouth! He says in verse 19, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent." God is love, and love, though kind, is also full of discipline and honesty. Fear keeps the peace at all costs, even to the point of holding back from needed confrontation. Proverbs 28:23 makes it so clear: He who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward than he who flatters with the tongue. In summary, love is kind to all, does not respond in kind to wrongs committed against it, and will be silent toward personal persecution. But, love will defend the weak and stand for truth when unfair actions hurt others. May the Lord enable us all to be set free from fear that refuses to confront problems when necessary, and to be filled with the love of God which "does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail." By Pastor Mitch Horton | April 2007 | Posted in • Featured Content | (1) Comments Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; (5) does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; (6) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; (7) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (8) Love never fails. . .(1 Corinthians 13: 4-8). We’ve been examining the characteristics of Agape love in the last few issues of Victorious Living. In my last article, I discussed the truth that love does not rejoice at iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Love does not ignore problems, but kindly confronts them with truth. A person who really loves you will be honest with you if you’re involved in something that will be a detriment to your life in some way. The next characteristic of love from 1 Corinthians 13: 7 is that love bears all things. The word bear is the Greek word stege which simply means “a roof or a covering.” In this verse, it means to cover by silence the offenses of others! In fact, the Berkeley translation of the New Testament of this phrase reads, “Love covers all things in silence.” Proverbs 10:12 tells us that hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins. And this principle is mentioned again in 1 Peter 4:8: “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.” A believer who walks in love will not gossip about others’ problems! Mrs. C Nuzum, author of the book The Life of Faith1, has this to say about love covering with silence: “Love covers sins, even when there is a multitude of them. Love not only hides the evil in others, but refuses even to speak of it. Then, if we tell of the evil someone has done, criticize, judge, condemn, or murmur against anyone, no matter who he is or what he has done, we are proving that we have not love, because love covers in silence.” Resist the tendency to talk about others and their problems. A mature believer who walks in agape has learned to value others and will not be used to disseminate negative information! We are to keep our thoughts and our words on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy! Another attribute of agape love in 1 Corinthians 13:7 is that agape believes all things. The Amplified Bible of this verse reads: “Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].” Agape love will lead you to believe in people, even when they don’t believe in themselves. When I began my walk with Jesus over 30 years ago, the Lord showed me a tendency I had to look for faults in others. I did this because of my own insecurities. Whatever you believe about yourself will directly affect how you treat others. So I had the tendency to look for something in another person that would bring them down to my size. While attending a worship service in my church one Sunday morning as an 18 year old, I began to look for faults in the ushers as they took up the offering. As I was searching for some physical defect or some flaw in their clothing, the Holy Spirit challenged me by reminding me that love believes the best of every person. He challenged me to repent of looking for flaws in others and instead to look for the best in them. That one event changed my life, and over the years I can now say that I have the habit of overlooking the flaws and of seeing the best in others. This one attitude can change the way you relate to everyone around you. Let me also mention that we should be careful with the use of sarcasm in our speech. This word sarcasm actually comes from a Latin word and means to cut the flesh! Resist the tendency to cut down and defame others even in a joking way. Love always builds and encourages. Agape love also hopes all things. This characteristic is similar to believing the best in someone but goes a step further. Love expects improvement as time goes by. Hope always deals with the future, and when we hope all things, we are saying that we believe others are changing for the better! The Amplified Bible of this phrase reads “its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances.” Agape believes in the God who can change people! Agape endures all things. The Greek word for endure here in 1 Corinthians 13:7 is the word hupomeno. This Greek word comes from hupo which means “under” and meno which means “to remain.” Together it is the picture of a person who remains steady in a difficult place. When the going gets tough, this person continues to stand and continues to love. In trying and difficult relationships, the person who loves with agape becomes a real strength to those who, through their own hurt, are hurtful to others. Agape will allow you to remain through thick and thin and to put up with the biting, hurtful, stinging things that others do to you. Agape love maintains faith that God is working behind the scenes to bring about change in a person who is frankly hard to live with! Endurance will enable you to be kind to the unkind and tender to the harsh. Here’s another quote that I thought was so good concerning endurance from the book The Life of Faith: “To endure is to go through a thing just as though it had not occurred - to be not in the least affected by it. How many of us can and do go through all trying, hurtful, evil things that are on every side as sweetly, calmly, silently, lovingly, and uncomplainingly as if they were all just as if we would like them to be. That is to endure.”2 The last characteristic of love is that love never fails! 1 John 4:16 tells us that we are to believe the love that God has for us. It is possible to come to the place in life where you believe that love is the best way to live. It is better than selfishness, strife, bitterness, resentment, grudges, anger, and animosity. The love way is the most successful way to live. I encourage you to go over these lessons on love again and again. The five lessons are available on our website at http://www.vfgarner.com Keep .your mind renewed with God’s word about agape and its characteristics. In closing, I want to share with you a compilation of different translations of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 that give a great synopsis of Agape. I encourage you to read it every day! I CORINTHIANS 13:4 - 7 “Let me describe love. It is slow to lose patience; love stays in difficult relationships with kindness, and it always looks for ways to be constructive. There is no envy in love. It is not possessive and never boils over with jealousy. Love makes no parade of itself; it never boasts, nor does it puff up with pride. “Love is never arrogant and never puts itself on display, because it is neither anxious to impress, nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love never gets irritated and is never resentful.” “Love holds no grudges, and it keeps no record of evil done to it. Love refuses to be provoked and never harbors evil thoughts.” “Love is not rude or grasping or overly sensitive, nor does love search for imperfections and faults in others. Love does not compile statistics of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love celebrates what is real and not what is perverse or incomplete.” “Love never does the graceless thing. Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. Love never insists on its own rights, never irritably loses its temper, and never nurses its wrath to keep it warm. Love is not touchy.” “Love can stand any kind of treatment because there are no limits to its endurance, no end to its trust. Love bears up under anything; it perseveres in all circumstances. Love’s first instinct is to believe in people. If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best in him, and always stand your ground in defending him. Love never regards anyone or anything as hopeless. Love keeps up hope in everything. Love’s hope never fades.” “Love keeps on keeping on! It trusts in God in every situation and expects God to act in all circumstances. Love goes on forever. Nothing can destroy love. Nothing can happen that can break love’s spirit. In fact, it is the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.” __________________________________________________________ Resources & Endnotes 1. Mrs. C. Nuzum, The Life of Faith (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1928, 1956), p. 84 2. Mrs. C. Nuzum, The Life of Faith (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1928, 1956), p. 85-86 Comments: I love this news letter, it was send to me from a sister in my church, can you put me on your list to receive your news letters. Blessings. 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