Do everything in love.
1 Corinthians 16:14 (NIV)
Do Everything in Love
According to a report on the CNN website, “It’s not so easy to get a simple apology in most of the world. Being jostled in India. Getting your foot stepped on in Greece. Not having the door held open for you in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. That’s just all part of unrepentant life. In Canada, apologies happen constantly — “sorries” flying in from all sides like swarms of affable killer bees. A Queen’s University poll titled “Sorry … I’m Canadian,” found that 90% of Canadians aged 18-25 will immediately apologize if a stranger bumps into them.
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When I was a child, I was involved in a Bible memorization contest. We had to memorize 30 verses in 30 days. I still remember them all. The contest developers were sneaky. They started out with really short verses like John 11:35 – Jesus wept, and our text for today, 1 Corinthians 16:14: “Do everything in love.” I later discovered that some of these short verses are the most impactful. That is certainly the case with 1 Corinthians 16:14. There are no caveats here, no outs. it does not say “do everything in love, except to those who have hurt you, or disappointed you, who don’t look like you, or who act differently than you.” It doesn’t say that. God is very direct here – no matter what we do, or to whom, we must do everything in love. It isn’t always easy. People hurt us – love them. People say nasty things – love them. People disappoint us – love them. Jesus is our example here. Each of us has done something or said something that had broken His heart – and He loves us the same. So must we.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley