Hello, and welcome to Enbolden, living a bold Christian life. I'm Chris Shutter, an ordinary Christian living with and learning about an extraordinary God. In the book of Jude we read about the grumblers and the fault-finders following their own evil desires and boasting about themselves. I find the best way not to be a grumbler and a fault-finder, which I struggle with, is instead to look for ways to be thankful and grateful.
That's why on the Enbolden podcast we're doing 30 Days of Thankfulness. Please join me. Our thank-overs today comes from 1 Corinthians 13, 1 through 3. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clinging symbol.
If I have the gift of prophecy and confathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 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. The word love is found over 300 times in the King James Bible. And if we were to steady each mention, we'd probably find quite a lot of different uses of that word.
In our lives, we use love in reference to friends, food, hobbies, god, spouses, and more, each having a different meaning. 1 Corinthians 13 goes on, love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it does not proud, it does not dishonor 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. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
The current great lie in our culture about love is the statement, love is love. Its use in this phrase is to convince us that all worldly love is good, but as anyone who has taken a hard look at the idols we place in our lives, we know that isn't true. We as Christians also know that deep, interpersonal love, like the love between spouses, is reserved for specific relationships. Love as God has gifted us is not just a feeling or a yearning, it's to be a mirror of the love God shows us.
God asks us to show love for our neighbors through kindness, he asks us to show love to sinners with forgiveness and compassion, he gives us families to express deep connections, and he reserves that special love between a man and a woman. Love is one of the many gifts from God that cannot be fully explained. It's not just our brain firing off electrical impulses when we see an attractive person. If that were the case, it wouldn't explain loving people who hate us.
I thank God for this faith and mysterious gift of love, and I thank him for how much he loves us. His love is so unexplainable, it's simple. We don't deserve it, and yet he will never take it away. First Corinthians 13, 13, and now these three remain, faith, hope, and love for the greatest of these is love.
Have a great full day. I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Enbolden Podcast. Be sure to follow along so you don't miss any episode, and check out my blog at embolden.net.