A Revelation
wesmorris,
Can't you see that it only is if you think it is? HE DOES NOT. His opinion has to be valid if you give anyone but yourself any respect. In that case, you've nullified your own perspective regarding love... at least in the case of people who don't agree with you. Is it ethical then, to attempt to persuade someone that your "most important thing" should be identical to their "most important thing"?
It is written that Love is the most important thing. Unfortunatly, most Christians prefer to put themselves out of the equation and see 1 Corinthians 13 as an explanation of when God comes to live among us. In Truth, 1 Corinthians 13 talks about THE gift. The gift is God
living in us, and He Loves people
through us, although we do not understand His Love.
1 Corinthians 13 says that everything is totally worthless without Love:
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
"1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing."
And then, it continues describing Love:
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
"4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. "
And then, Its importance:
1 Corinthians 13:8-10
"8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. "
And finally, the attainement of Love:
1 Corinthians 13:11-13
"11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. "
Attaining Love is not an easy thing. You have to really believe that God lives in you and act on it. Then, you will be walking by the Spirit and you will have the same power that Jesus has and you wll attain perfection.
What Christians don't think about is that God gives us whatever we ask, and He wants to bless us in every way. If He can give us salvation a sa gift, why wouldn't He give us His Love and make our lives meaningful? Because without Love, life is totally meaningless.
That's the revelation I'm bringing to this world. I don't know if I'm the only one, but that is my job. I'll be preaching the Gospel of Love. This will bring a HUGE power and unity to the church.
Those are the other scriptures that talk about this revelation:
John 17:23
"23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me."
1 John 2:4-6
"4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:
6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. "
1 John 4:12
"12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us."
And those are some of the consequences of this revelation:
End of fear:
1 John 4:18
"18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. "
Unity of the church (no denominations anymore):
Colossians 3:14
"14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. "
Power to the Church:
Galatians 5:6
"6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. "