Read: 1 Corinthians 13:2 (NIV)
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
I’m not sure if it is still a popular phrase anymore, but I have a BFF. She is someone who has been with me through the ups and downs of life. Even when we are far from each other, that love still exists. However, even though I love her dearly, she is not my only friend. I have several BFFs in my life that have a special place in my heart. Each one brings value to my life that may differ from the others, but they are all equally special to me.
It is easy to love our friends but what is hard is loving those who aren’t like our closest confidants. It would be unrealistic to think everyone on the earth would be exactly like our friends yet we expect just that. We want people to be the kind of people we think they should be, always conforming to our standards of what a human should look and act like. Think about it, how often do we avoid (or welcome) a political or social topic because we know the other person is not going to think like we do?
We may believe our faith is strong but without love, our faith is nothing. Every single person, despite their imperfections, is made in God’s image. If we all chose to not love those others when their imperfections presented themselves, what would we gain? I think we can see a good picture of what it might look like when we turn on the television. Instead, if we chose love in its true form instead of acting and reacting based on how we feel, we would be patient, kind, and lack envy, arrogance, irritability, selfishness, anger, and resentment (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). We would persevere and fulfill God’s purpose for our lives.
