Let's start off with love :) ❤️

Jesus tells us to LOVE everyone, often times we say that we "love" someone, but really, we are just tolerating them. Jesus calls us to go deeper, to go above and beyond, and to LOVE them, that means not secretly judging them, not just loving them because you "have" to, but truly loving them. This means seeing the good in them even when you see the bad, always being there for them when they need you, not being jealous of them, being patient with them, ect.

1 Corinthians 13:3-8 describes love and it sure isn't just tolerating, or saying "Hi" once in a while. It is so much more, we really need to BE love. And when I talk about love I'm not talking about romance, or the phony love that television sells, I mean REAL love, agape love- where you don't just say I love you, but show your love, a love that shows "I would die for you", a love that is evident way before you say a heartfelt "I love you", a love that is so obvious that you don't even need to say it: a love that loves everyone and everybody no matter their past, their present, their future. A love that resembles how Christ loves the church.

So what is this Love?

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinkers no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

Okay, lets take a moment to look at this in simpler terms. If we look at the meaning of the word Charity in Greek it means love, but the word with a wonderful twist to it.

The Greek word is: Agape (ἀγάπη).

You may be wondering, What on earth does that mean??!

Agape is a word that has truly influenced my life, firstly it showed me the love of Jesus for me, and secondly, it showed me how to love others in the same way.

Agape is the love that Jesus demonstrated, a love that will stop at *nothing* to express itself to another. It is a noun; the love of God and Christ for mankind; it is an unselfish love of one person for another without sexual implications; it is a brotherly love; a love feast.

So this section in the Bible starts out with one word, and even if he didn't expand on it, the one word would be sufficient enough. Yet because God knows that us humans don't take the time to figure out the origin of words and look over incredibly meaningful sentences and label them as cliche.

Agape (love) is patient, and is kind; agape (love) envies not (isn't jealous); agape (love) doesn't vaunt itself (doesn't put itself on display, does seek out attention), is not puffed up (isn't proud), doesn't behave itself unseemly (bad behaviour), seeks not her own (doesn't purposely seek attention or praise for good works), is not easily provoked (isn't easily irritated, angered, but note that unlike the others it doesn't say an outright "doesn't get angry" it says "doesn't get angry easily", because a righteous anger is okay, even Jesus got angry