“I Love You” changes everything.
That is what God said at Christmas, “I love you.”
1st Corinthians is called the Love Chapter of the Bible
Verse 13 ends the chapter as the Apostle Paul says, “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”
Every person caught in a life problem, can best be helped by first loving them. It tills the ground for God to grow his harvest. Until the person feels loved, their heart will be cold and hardened, and unlikely to grow a good crop of healthy fruit.
If there is someone you want to change … love them.
If there is someone who has hurt you … love them.
If there is someone who is in the wrong lifestyle … love them.
Here is the Christmas version of 1st Corinthians 13
By Sharon Jaymes
If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another decorator.
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another cook.
If I work at the soup kitchen, sing Christmas carols in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to those I came to help, it profits me nothing.
If I trim the Christmas tree with shimmering angels and handmade snowflakes, and go to a dozen Christmas parties and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.
Love stops the cooking to hug the child.
Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the spouse.
Love is kind, though harried and tired.
Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way.
Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return, but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, my job will someday cease, and the house will eventually be gone.
But giving the gift of love will endure forever.
Share the love!
Chaplain Mark
1st Corinthians 13 (NRSV)
The Gift of Love
1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
It really all boils down to love, doesn’t it? Thanks for the reminder Mark! I hope you and the Fam have a very merry Christmas this season!