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Here is the ninth part of The Upside Down World of Theology.  Once again please use this study in any way it is helpful to you and brings a smile to God.


Chapter Eight
Love is decision not a feeling.

            “4  Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5  does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6  does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8  Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.” (1Corinthians 13:4-8 NKJV)

            Love is usually seen as an emotional or physical attraction or attachment between two people.  I remember this young couple who went through pre-marital counseling with me.  Both of their families didn’t want them to get married.  At the least they wanted them to wait a little while.  I usually ask for each person in a couple to tell me three reasons why they want to marry the other person and one of the reasons cannot be that they love the other and they can’t use the same answers.

            As they struggled to come up with even one reason the girl finally gushed, “Because I get this feeling in my stomach whenever he is around.”  My response was to wonder if maybe she was just allergic to him.

            In 1 Corinthians 13 we have some of the most beautiful writing in all of human time.  Love is defined and shown how it looks as it is lived out.  For LOVE CAN BE SEEN!  Love is not an emotion to be felt but a decision we make at a point in our lives and lived out every day.

            I choose to love someone.  This is not because they are super good looking or because they will make be a better person.  The first is lust and the second is self-centered.  I choose to love someone because I realize that while I need them they also need me.  There are ways I can make them a better person.  Indeed without me they are incomplete just as I am without them.

“26 ¶ Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27 NKJV)

Notice the language.  
Let us make man in our image = the Triune God is expressed in man
Let them = man is more than just one, like God man is a plural
God created man in His own image = the desire came to fruit

In the image of God He created him; male and female He created them= okay this really doesn’t make sense!  He created him; male and female He created them!  But it does!  For Man is not male or female!  Man is the combination and union of a male and a female!  Only truly joined together can Man be the image of God.  Only together can they find union and learn how to live as one though of more than one.  Only together can Man created life as part of the image of God!

The WOW factor
I realize I am starting to get closer to understanding God when the WOW factor kicks in!  Is this not amazing?

Action
            Notice the description Paul gives of love.  And remember that this letter is written to a divisive, carnal and very unchristian group of Christians!

Love    suffers long                 is kind                         does not envy              does not parade itself
            is not puffed up           does not behave rudely           does not seek its own  
is not provoked           thinks no evil                          does not rejoice in iniquity
rejoices in the truth     bears all things           believes all things        hopes all things,
endures all things       Love never fails.

WOW!  You would have to be super-human to do this!  Why you would almost have to be God!  Getting it yet?  Love is a decision by us to act in a Godly manner toward someone and this decision causes us to depend upon God which strengthens our love for God!  Did I just hear a WOW?

Is this why Jesus always ties our love for others with our love for God?







How do you get the help from God to live this way?









Did (and does) Jesus love you in this way?    (Not a yes or no question.)

           











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