Love Is Patient and Kind: The Practical Nature of Biblical Love – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Commentary

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Isn’t that wonderful? What a thing to say. And this is what the Bible says love is. You notice it’s not really sentimental at all. It’s realistic about how hard life and relationships can be. But it is the thing that we need to hear.

I will often say to couples who are getting married in church – you know that the church service, at no point do you say to one another, I love you. You say, I will love you through thick and thin, in sickness and in health through good times and bad until death as do part. It is a promise of love, not a feeling of love.

It’s covenantal, it’s faithful, and it’s the greatest project of our lives. Succeed in that and nothing else really matters. And upon that foundation, we build families and communities. And I think we need to model and live that kind of love. We need to teach it to our children. We need to share it amongst our communities.

We need to live it out amongst our friends and in our church.