the theme, "Love Is . . if Each car toon, with cherubic-like children, completes that sentence in a dif ferent way. The boy might whisper in the girl's ear, "Love is listen ing." It might be the two walking in a downpour with an umbrella over their heads with the caption, "Love is going for a walk together in the rain." The series has in spired a variety of "spin-off" items such as plaques, posters, writing paper, and other products. There seems to be no limit to the dif ferent ideas that can be used to complete the phrase, "Love is ..." The difficulty of defining true Biblical love revolves around the many facets of it explained in Scripture. In I Corinthians 13:4 we see that love should characterize our life under all conditions. Love always has to operate under a va riety of adverse situations. Paul points out, "Love suffereth long." With all of the pressures of life exerted, the Christian can still exist with a life characterized by true love. The concept of long- suffering by itself is one of the aspects of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22, 23). This is a love which does not stop when the cir cumstances are not ideal. We also learn that "love is not easily provoked" (vs. 5). In the Greek this has the idea of not be ing easily moved to action. This individual thinks things through before he acts. He responds care fully and wisely with a desire to make sure that others are not hurt by what he does or says. This is a very positive quality. In verse seven we read that "love beareth all things." The Greek word suggests the illustration of putting a roof on a home to keep
faith is not impelled through love with a desire to benefit others it is of no value. We could use the il lustration of a powerful ship. Its engines are running with its pro pellers churning, but if it is rudder less where is its sense of direction? So it is with faith. Most of us have the idea that physical love is centered on oth ers. Paul says in verse three that even though a person sacrifices all that he has for others, including possibly his own life, without the proper motive of love, he has achieved nothing. We are naturally suspicious of people who are ov erly solicitous of others. We won der what their real motives are because love is not always seen as the natural objective. Love can only be operative when a person really puts his life on the line be cause he loves others. Love does not just send a check to some charity. Love is living with a day- by-day deep, consuming concern, not only for our Lord Jesus Christ but also for others for whom He lived and died. At the end of verse three Paul uses the concept "it profiteth me nothing." In the eyes of Cod, our gifts, our actions, our words, are worthless unless they are totally motivated by love. The only way we can aptly demonstrate the qual ity of Christian love is to be so genuinely concerned about the Lord who loves us that we do things without any thought for self whatsoever. Is this what takes place in your life as you seek to serve the Saviour? LOVE I S . . . There is a popular cartoon fea ture which appears regularly in a number of newspapers built around
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