Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
“Charity beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
1Corinthians 13:7
The love of God is love for God. The object of the love of God is not man, but God. It is true that those with God’s love in their hearts love people, but that is only because God does. The love of God enables a person to express God’s nature here on earth. The heart that is filled with the love of God loves God’s words and speaks them plainly; it loves God’s ways and walks in them humbly; it loves God’s power and trusts it completely; it loves God’s Son and honors him as Lord of all; it loves God’s people and dies out to self for them. The heart that is filled with the love of God abhors everything that is not in harmony with the words, the ways, the power, and the Son and the people of God.
The love of God is not wimpish. It is bold with its love for God. It is kind, but it is unshakable in its proclamation of the truth and denunciation of wickedness. It is patient, but it condemns iniquity without hesitation or equivocation. The love of God is not confused as to what is right and wrong. It never can be found sitting on the fence, wondering which side to choose.
It can endure anything, but it will not give the first inch of room to sin. It can bear up under the most difficult of trials, but it will not yield, “no, not for an hour”, to false teachers who mislead God’s children. It rejoices in hope for eternity, but it is practical and full of common sense and faith. It believes everything that God says, but it is not gullible or superstitious.
Regardless of the circumstances the love of God looks to the power of God to bless and keep those who obey Him. Love understands that God can change things. When nothing else works, the love of God will find a way. There are no dead ends for the love of God, no human situation that puzzled it. The heart full of the love of God has no confidence in the flesh; it trusts in God’s power for strength to overcome everything in this world. The love of God “covers a multitude of sins” because it knows that the power of God can cleanse a wicked heart when it turns to God. It believes that anyone can be healed by the power of God. It believes that anyone can be washed and made pure by the power of God. It believes that all people can be saved in the end if they, too, trust in God’s power.
Filled with the love of God, Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers,“Brethren, when I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom . . . and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” The love of God is not ashamed of the power of God; it loves the power of God’s Spirit and relies upon it constantly. And it is only because of its utter reliance upon the power of the Spirit that the love of God can endure anything, bear anything, believe anything, or hope anything. Without the power of God within us, we are hopeless, faithless, and less than weak against any evil influence. That is why those filled with the true love of God earnestly desire God’s power and trust their very souls to it.