How to be the daughter… be the son God created you to be.
You were once a rock, now you’re a raft. Our nature has changed. Not only do we live, we can help save others.
1 John 4
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
God is love. God is in us. Love never fails. Therefore we never fail because we are one with Christ.
1. Are you more known for your gifts, talents, and abilities or more known for your love? Explain.
2. When you share your gifts, talents, and abilities are you motivated by love or are you motivated by how it makes you look, feel, or what it can gain you?
The love talked about here is Agape love - it is defined as unconditional love. A love that expects nothing in return. A love that is not dependent on someone else loving you. This is how God loves us. This was a radical thought to the Corinthians since this type of love wasn’t available until Jesus came into their lives.
As people, we tend to be in competition with each other. We focus on what we can achieve. What we can gain.
1 Corinthians 13
13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
God is changing how the Corinthians see their worth. Their worth is no longer in what they achieve or what they can do. Their worth is now in how they love. And not only how they love, but that they are now one with love. One with Jesus. That is what their worth is now.
Being smart, popular, beautiful and rich without being loving makes you a villain. Watch TV and movies... what do the villains have in common? They don’t have love. They have talent, they have intelligence, they have money… but they don’t have love.
1. Who do you have the hardest time loving? Why do you think that is?
2. What do you think are some practical ways to start infusing love into your relationships?
No greater love has man than this, that He lay down His life for His friends. John 15:!3
It is hard to lay down our lives for those who we’re very familiar with.
Remember God loves us with Agape love. We are His children. His sons and daughters. And because He loves us like that we are able to love others like that. As a believer, your DNA has changed. Your nature has changed in such a way that you are someone who is created to love. Love itself is now your nature. And love never fails.
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