Reflection on: 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

Hi All!

Lately I have been posting a lot of recipe posts but no life or hope posts. Remember all, Eat or Drink is about Healthy Foods, Happy Life and Hope. My Hope is in Christ. Christ is the reason I do all of this. He’s the reason I even get up in the morning. I want to start using my platform to reflect on His Word and His goodness more often.

Of course Eat or Drink is always primarily focused on my recipes, but every Sunday I’m going to start doing a reflection post. It will not take away from the 3 recipe posts I do during the week, it’ll just be an addition to those.

So if you’re like HEY! I didn’t sign up for this… then skip this post and move on to the recipes. But I do hope you take the time to read and reflect with me. Comments are always open and I’m hoping you do comment and add your own insight. 🙂

Today I wanted to reflect on 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7. As Christians (I think especially as a Christian woman) this is one of the first sections we remember. It’s even played a lot in secular movies and TV shows. I think it’s so overheard that when we read it, it goes right over our heads.

The love 1 Corinthians 13 talks about isn’t ooey gooey lovey dovey romantic love. It’s not talking about the love you feel when you first start dating someone. It’s talking about a self sacrificing, never ending, commitment love. A love that we can never do perfectly. But a love we receive perfectly from God daily.

I really get struck by these 3 parts of love… suffers long (vs. 4), bears all things (vs. 7) and endures all things (vs. 7). Speaking here from my context, as a wife, these are the hardest things to do. When we as wives are commanded by God to submit to and respect our imperfect husbands that also means we often will be suffering long, bearing all things and enduring all things. That means I have to bear his imperfections and submit unto them. We also know from 1 John 4:18 that there is no fear in love. Yet when our husbands screw up or ask us to submit to something we disagree with, all we feel is fear. All the enemy whispers into our heads is that we are about to get hurt and suffer consequences for their mistakes. Yet there’s God whispering sweetly, “I’ll protect you, be patient, bear this, endure this and do not fear”. Yes our husbands are imperfect but God wants us to bear that and submit to that without fear. God asks us to love them perfectly, enduring all their mistakes. How often do I actually love like this?

In Genesis 12 we see Sarah love this way. Her husband Abraham acted like a coward when entering Egypt. He asked his wife to protect him by pretending to be his sister. He wasn’t being the husband God called him to be. But that doesn’t mean Sarah had to stop being the wife she was called to be. We know the consequences that could have come because of Abraham’s mistake. She could have been raped and abused and who knows what else. Yet Sarah respected her husband. She followed his plan. She was patient, she bore his mistake, she endured the trial and she did not fear. And God did not let Sarah, his sweet daughter get hurt. He protected her. I don’t think she was able to submit and love this way because of who her husband was. I think she was able to submit and love because of who her God is.

We can suffer long, we can bear all things and we can endure all things. We can love without fear. We can do this not because of the person we are suppose to love but because of the God who first loved us. Because of Christ who died for us and rose again giving us new life. We can give self sacrificial love because Christ sacrificed all for us. We can trust that our self sacrificial love will not get us hurt, because God will always be there if the human we love fails.

This is a challenge to myself and to each of you. I challenge anyone reading this to walk out in faith this week. Love the person God is telling you to love. Love them the way God tells us to love. Love them without fear. Endure their imperfections, bear their mistakes and suffer long through the trials. Consciously choose to love like this week.

Comment below on your experiences trying to love this week and share any insight you have!