December 8, 2024 -- I Corinthians 13:1-6 -- This might be the hardest step of all

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If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 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.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
I Corinthians 13:1-6 NIV
 
Many of us are so familiar with the soaring words of I Corinthians 13. Perhaps read at weddings. Memorized in Sunday Schools. It is, however, not merely a nice little text, it is the explosive, life-altering explanation of the love which God has shown to His people in Christ Jesus. Read through the descriptions of love, practical, ethical, moral, persistent as the phrases pile on phrases giving full explanation of what love truly is.
 
Some of you might have noted this is not the translation I usually work with for these devotions. Today it is the New International Version (revised in 2011). The reason I chose that version is the translation at verse 5. Where the ESV has resentful, the NIV has the more to the point “keeps no record of wrongs”. At Step 6 in the Overcomers Material, participants admit: “I am ready to let God take away all my hurts, character weaknesses, and wrongdoings” (Overcomers Workbook, page 108, Day 43). All my hurts. Let that sink in. There are so many hurts and wrongs and betrayals committed against us, and we treasure them up and justify our own bad behavior.
 
Jesus is the only True Man Who never, ever, kept a record of wrongs. When you think of all the sins, betrayals, character assassinations committed against Him, all the wrongdoings and good intentions gone awry, and the list could be endless, it really is staggering to realize He is as human as we are, but He didn’t sin by storing up resentments against others. He kept no record of wrongs, no heart-hit-list against His enemies, not even against His dearest disciples who, one by one abandoned Him, which must have been most cutting wounds of all. He took on Himself all such wickedness committed against Him and bore it to the cross, where He was punished for the sins of all.
 
What is love? It is patient-kindness, living the unbreakable love of God outward to all the people you meet. They are unworthy. So are you. They are just going to take advantage of it. So do you take advantage of God’s love. One the one hand you reach greedily for more and more of God’s love all the while hoarding and trying to hold back love that needs to flow into the life of those who worked evil against you. Christians are supposed to be the most radical group of all: no matter how wronged, hurt, wounded we are, we will pray over all such who hurt us, have hurt us, and we hand them to the mercy of Jesus. We do this, so that, with a clean head, a clean slate emptied of every record of wrongs, and a clean attitude, we as Christians are prepared to meet all people with the never-ending love of God that flows to us through Jesus’s accomplished work which is sealed to you and me by the Holy Spirit.
 
Day 43 in the workbook suggests students write down all the resentments and hurts and wounds which are keeping them from experiencing the fullness of love that is theirs in Christ. As you write that list, I suggest you put a light, pencil line through each one and in bold write beside it: “Paid in full at Calvary.”
 
 Then consider the resentments others have against you. For your sins. For your lack of kindness. For the wreckage left by your addictions, like alcohol, drugs, porn, anger, over-spending-in-order-to-feel-good, pride, gossipy ways, self-centredness, keeping a record of wrongs. Now, pray that on this list others might have against you will also, by the grace of God, have those record-holders be moved by the Spirit to cross them out and write: “paid in full at Calvary”. But even if they do not, you walk in the great freedom of the forgiving love that has been poured out to you in Jesus Christ. Now, go and live for Jesus showing to all that you walk in the greatness of His forgiving love. In the never-ending stream of Jesus’s love which wells up in you unto eternal life, you will be prepared to meet all accusations and all resentments hurled against you with patience, humility and a heart willing to be reconciled. That reconciliation is not cheap, it comes at the great cost of Jesus Christ, His perfect life, and sinless Person, punished so that we would walk in freedom of the Father’s electing love.
 
 
Father in heaven, it is too hard. Too lofty a thing to attain, this living love out loud like Paul wrote to the Corinthians. I confess I am skilled at keeping a record of wrongs, and quite remiss in knowing about the wrongs I’m committing against others. Often, I’ll be surprised at the variety of ways in which I have hurt others and I am not prepared as in Christ I ought to be to humbly confess my own sins and seek reconciliation. Teach me the way of love so that in true fellowship with Jesus and with others I will live the extravagant, life-changing love that is mine in Christ. God, I have already failed at this so much. I admit, even as I am praying this, my head and heart like a horse straining against the reins I am shying away from really digging in and praying it with conviction. Spirit, help me to be even more sincere in making this prayer and erasing all the records of wrong I have so that nothing will hinder my intimacy with Jesus. Amen.
 
https://youtu.be/Cyek-LrYBV8?si=cv3djJOjj0NXv-5e Take Me to the Cross
 
 

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