By: Justin Dillenschneider, Director of Student Life
Week of February 14th, 2022
Love can be defined as having a strong affection for someone. This virtue stirs many things in our hearts and minds as we contemplate our experiences. For some, “love” describes something very far from the Biblical definition and examples because it has never been modeled for them. For all of us, we can think of people in our lives that have fallen short of the love described in 1 Corinthians 13. The beauty of the way that God demonstrates His love for us is found in 1 John 4:9-10 “9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice, for our sins.” When we were still far off and dead in our sins, God loved us and sent his son Jesus to pay the penalty of death so that we would be free. From this sacrificial and steadfast love, we see the character of God described in Exodus 34:6 played out to its fullest extent. The love of God permeates the life of His followers and completely changes them from the inside out.
Continue contemplating gentleness by looking at this week’s scripture reading from
1 Corinthians 13:3-8a CSB
“3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends.”
We want to encourage you to have a conversation this week about the virtue of love.
Consider these discussion prompts together:
- What tempts you to become selfish?
- Where have you seen people fall into permissiveness? Where are you tempted to do so?
- What are some ways you see Christ correcting permissiveness or selfishness in people in Scripture?
- How do we see the apostles and the early church modeling and celebrating love?
Hymn to Sing Together: How Deep the Father’s Love For Us