In Christ We Learn the Way of Love (Part One)

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

1 Corinthians 13:4–13

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is 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. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

CONSIDER THIS

We can confidently say that 1 Corinthians 13:4–13 stands as one of the most profound articulations of love in world literature. Its verses have been quoted by presidents, read at weddings the world over, and have served as a guiding light for Christians learning to love like Jesus for thousands of years. Whatever may have happened to Paul on the road to Damascus in Acts 9, whatever he may have experienced as he learned the gospel by revelation from Jesus (Gal. 1:11–12), it found its way to the surface in this remarkable passage about the way of love.

Paul is expanding on the love of Christ he describes in his Prayer for Union and Love in Ephesians 3:14–21. For that reason, we will take the time to savor the verses from this passage over a few days. We will draw fresh insights into our union with Christ from this Spirit-inspired and instructive vision of love—a passage that teaches us how to love others as Jesus loves us (John 13:34).

As we begin, I would like to draw on writing about 1 Corinthians 13 by my good friend J. D. Walt. He provides an exercise in love that can begin to help us actualize and incorporate the love of Jesus into our thinking and actions.

I would welcome you to do the exercises he suggests along with me:

First Corinthians 13 is profound realism. As an exercise of faith and bold self-examination, I want to ask you to insert your name in every blank below. Read it aloud inserting your name in each blank.

_____ is patient. _____ is kind. _____ does not envy, _____ does not boast, _____ is not proud. _____ does not dishonor others, _____ is not self-seeking, _____ is not easily angered, _____ keeps no record of wrongs. _____ does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. _____ always protects, _____ always trusts, _____ always hopes, _____ always perseveres.

“This is impossible!” you say. And you are right, if it is solely up to you and me to become these things. Here’s the big secret. 

Go back and insert the word “Jesus” in all the blanks. If these things are true about Jesus, and we know they are, and Jesus is in you, what does that say about you?¹

We can learn Christ’s way of love because Christ Jesus is in us. Of all the transforming passages in the Scriptures, these verses would be worth memorizing and rehearsing in the coming days.

In union with Jesus, we can learn the way of love.

THE PRAYER 

Lord Jesus, I am in you and you are in me. The kind of love Paul describes here is only possible if you are living your life through me. My life’s work is to allow you to do that. In union with you, I choose to align my spirit with the way of love as it is described here. “Teach me your way, Lord,” that I may walk in your truth (Ps. 86:11). Teach me to love as you love. In Christ Jesus, I pray, amen.

THE QUESTIONS

What do you think would happen if you did both exercises once per day for one month? What do you think might change in the way you experience God’s love and in the way you love others?

For the Awakening,
Dan Wilt 

NOTES

1. J. D. Walt, What Happens in Corinth (Franklin: Seedbed Publishing, 2021), 154–55.

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