The Greatest Personal Quality to Possess… (Part 5)

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

With the holiday season upon us, this is the time when we start to see the people ringing the bells in front of the stores for the Salvation Army and this brings to mind, charity. It’s interesting in the King James Version of the Bible in the verses that we are writing about, it equates “charity” with “love”.

For what else is charity but showing love to someone else. In most cases, it is showing love to someone that you will never meet.

I hope that you have had a chance to read the earlier post in this series:

Part One – http://www.lifetosuccess.com/2010/11/15/the-greatest-personal-quality-to-possess/

Part Two – http://www.lifetosuccess.com/2010/11/16/the-greatest-personal-quality-to-possess…-part-2/

Part Three – http://www.lifetosuccess.com/2010/11/17/the-greatest-personal-quality-to-possess…-part-3/

Part Four – http://www.lifetosuccess.com/2010/11/18/the-greatest-personal-quality-to-possess…-part-4/

In this post we are looking at more of what “love” is not in 1 Corinthians 13 Verse 5:

does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

Love is absent when we are rude. When we are not acting in a loving way to someone, we are behaving rudely.

There is no grey area here. There is no excuse for rudeness.

“Love” does not seek its own. What does that mean?

Well I read that as, “loving” someone or something ONLY if it is to your liking. You “love” someone only if they are acting in a manner that you feel is proper. This is what I would think of as conditional love.

We may not be agreeable with their actions but we are to separate our love for them from their actions.

I am paraphrasing here because I only heard this and I don’t know where the verse in the Bible is but I think it goes like this, “I love YOU, BUT… I hate your sinful ways.” See the separation between you and your sinful ways.

“Love” is not provoked. When we are working in a spirit of love, we don’t fly off the handle as easy. When we are in a loving mindset, a lot of things seem to roll off of us.

“Love” thinks no evil. This is where the law of opposites apply.

There is a lot of talk about “grey” areas. This is where something may be “right” in one situation but “wrong” in another.

People will often refer to certain situations where abortion may be “right”.

But when you kill an unborn child, it is never in the spirit of love.

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:36

For everything for God “ALL THINGS” not just some things when we think they are right.

There is no “grey” area in “ALL THINGS”.

Again, I ask the question, how would our lives change, if everything we did was filled with the spirit of love?

How would our relationships be?

How would our jobs be?

How would our lives be?

I hope that you are finding this series helpful. I would love to hear your comments, please leave them below.

As Always, Here’s to Your LifetoSuccess,

God Bless You,

John Clark