CHOOSING to Love
1 Corinthians 13 love goes beyond kind With that in mind, instead of saying loving others means being friendly, warm, and affectionate, we should interpret the command to have more of the Note: At the beginning of the year I decided to verb (action) implication. This doesn’t mean we use this space to focus on God’s greatest comshouldn’t be warm and affectionate, but we’re not mand. If you’re connecting with this series commanded to be that way. To be loving according for the first time and would like to read the to 1 Corinthians 13 means to be fit for use, useful, foundational material of this discussion, I envirtuous, and good. courage you to visit Christian Living’s website What does that look like? to read the whole series. Visit https://www. Readers from previous articles in this series already christianlivingmag.com/columns/ know that God is our model when it comes to love. Accordingly, whenever I’m teaching this, I always ask “What is the greatest commandment?” It was people to identify when God has been useful to us. In likely a gotcha question from the scribes and teachevery day and in every way we should be able to talk ers of the law, but Jesus gave a straightforward anof situations in which God has been useful to us. At swer: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart the most fundamental level, the fact that He provides and with all your soul and with all your strength.” us food and clothing shows He loves us. And although he wasn’t asked, Jesus also told them But how do we show love back in terms of something else. “And the second is like it: ‘Love your Daniel Bobinski chrẽsteuomai? How can we be useful to God? neighbor as yourself.’” Have you stored up God’s Word in your heart? That’s useful to And then Jesus said something astounding. “All the Law and the God, because when we do that, it’s easier for the Holy Spirit to Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Think about that. All the law. All the prophets. It’s an amazing con- remind us of God’s principles. Have we rested in Him? Quieted our minds and spirits and sought His presence? That makes it easier for cept. Thankfully, the Apostle Paul gave us an itemized definition of Him to speak to us – for us to hear what He’s trying to get across. the word “love” in 1 Corinthians 13, and interestingly, the words are These are just two of many ways we can be useful to God, and if all verbs – things we are to DO. we do these things, we are fulfilling the greatest commandment – lovIn the last issue of Christian Living Magazine, this space examined ing the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, strength, and soul. what it means to be patient. In this issue we’ll be examining what it But what about the second-greatest commandment – love our means to be “kind.” neighbors as ourselves? How can we be useful to them? Modern psychology tells us that to be kind means to be friendly, If you think about it, kindness and usefulness go hand-in-hand in so considerate, gentle, warm, affectionate, and concerned. If you think many ways. If you hold the door for someone, the person might say, about it, these words generally relate to feeling. And, as you might “That was kind of you.” Yes, it was: You were being useful. expect, that’s how many people today define the word “kind.” When there’s a snowstorm and you shovel your neighbor’s walkway, But from a scriptural perspective, the words in 1 Corinthians 13 someone might say, “That was kind of you.” Again, you were being are verbs – action words. Therefore, being kind when living out the useful. greatest commandment isn’t about feelings. By the way, this way of looking at things helps us understand the The Greek word for “kind” in 1 Corinthians 13:4 is the verb mandate to love our enemies. For example, you might have a neighchrẽsteuomai (pronounced khra-styü'-o-mi), and it’s the only place bor who’s rather venomous toward you. As such, it’s nearly impossible in all of Scripture that this word appears. With a little digging into for you to have warm fuzzies for the man, but you can shovel his sidea concordance, we learn that chrẽsteuomai is the middle voice for walk, pick up trash that’s blown into his yard, or rake his leaves in the chrẽstos, which means, “fit for use, useful; virtuous, good.” fall without him knowing. In so doing, you are “loving your enemy.” By Daniel Bobinski
6 September / October 2020 | Christian Living
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