love.

The other day I was judging someone hard. I'm sure you've never done that before, but I sure was. I had all kind of names for this person. He was bad, and I was good. That's what my judgmental, prideful heart said anyway. God didn't let that last for long. He was quick to remind me of my sin and that I was no better than this person. In a very loving and Father-like way, The Spirit called me a hypocrite. I immediately asked for forgiveness and prayed for the receiver of my judgment. I wish I could say all my sin was that neatly packaged and dealt with, but my self-righteousness holds out a little longer sometimes.

Anyway, the Lord has really being laying 1 Corinthians 13 on my heart these past few months, and He always leads me back to that Scripture. We hear it in just about every wedding we attend, but the words Paul writes apply to more than wedding ceremonies. They are so rich, and we can all be brought to a place of humility with these words even in our most prideful seasons.

Paul gives us a list of what love is and what it is not. Love IS: patient, kind, rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love is NOT: envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, irritable, resentful, and does not rejoice at wrongdoing or insist on its own way. Time out. Think about yesterday. Scan through your day keeping this image of love in your mind. Did you show you love? Raise your hand if you failed miserably. My hand is raised high, guys.

Ok Casey, so I'm a terrible non-loving Christian, what does that have to do with this blog? I'm glad you asked. Christian community MUST be rooted in love. Satan has divided so many communities and churches because we loved ourselves more than we loved our neighbor. My super judgmental moment the other day is why marriages fail and churches fall apart. We think we are better. Paul tells us that love never ends. Let me say that again. LOVE NEVER ENDS. Love rooted in Christ-not romantic love- never ends. That is music to my ears.

So join me in praying to have a supernatural love that transcends. The kind of love that is talked about in 1 Corinthians 13 comes only from Christ and resting in the Spirit. Our world will be completely transformed if we loved this way. Let's change the world, y'all!