1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love is kind”

As Paul continues to reveal the full spectrum of love we not only see it in all of its rich color but we hear the melody of its song. 1 Corinthians 13 is both a rainbow and a hymn of love revealing its positive actions and contrasting our negative ones. The first two descriptions are a pair of positives followed by four pairs of negatives. We have already seen the first partner in this positive pair, patience, the elasticity of love and its ability to suffer long.  The second side to this positive pair is:

• Kindness

Patience and kindness can be described as two sides of the same coin, the passive and active aspects of the same character trait. Patience involves staying our hands and mouths for the good of others, where kindness involves the active sense of spontaneous action done for the good of others. Kindness is love in action which seems to be in sharp contrast to patience and its virtuous ability to wait. Kindness’ active character is problematic in a world that wants to measure kindness by intentions instead of actions. If we were to be deeply moved after seeing pictures of starving children and say, “Someone ought to do something about that” we can’t consider ourselves as being kind based on being moved by what we saw because kindness is grounded in action not feeling.  Kindness always moves in the direction of the need, toward the problem, seeking to help, heal and resolve.

Kindness takes love on the road, it works for the welfare of the one loved and must be experienced through action for there is a great need for this world to see kindness exemplified. In December 1944, when the German army launched the surprise Battle of the Bulge, Major General Maxwell D. Taylor, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, was away, attending a staff conference in the United States. In Taylor’s absence, acting command of the 101st and its attached troops defending Bastogne, Belgium fell to General Anthony Clement McAuliffe. The German commander with a considerably larger force, surrounding the Americans sent a message encouraging their surrender.  After reading the message McAuliffe replied with one word “Nuts”.  Surrounded by the enemy he said, we have been afforded the greatest opportunity for we can attack in any direction! Where most would have given in and surrendered he soldiered on for he saw the opportunity of being surrounded by the enemy. The question is, do we? Today surrounded by suffering and pain we have been afforded the greatest opportunity for we can be kind in any direction and hit the mark. In this cruel world, we are presented with plenty of opportunities all around us to be kind toward others, to demonstrate this critical quality of love to a world which knows so little of love.

Sometimes kindness will cost you something, because kindness dares to be vulnerable as it meets the needs of others.  This is seen in the price paid by God as He loved us with kindness. As He looked at the human situation, what did He do? He became one of us; laying aside His glory He willing clothed Himself in flesh. He walked with us, wept with us, fed and healed us, showing us how to live with each other. What was our response to this loving kindness, this position of vulnerability, what did man do? We exploited His vulnerable position and crucified Him. We nailed Him to a cross high on a hill for all to see and mock, saying “If you really are the Son of God, come down from the cross. He saved others, Himself He cannot save.” Here is the real love of God in that moment of vulnerability when we would have lash out in pain He instead unleashed power. Power to save, to heal, to mend the broken hearts & broken homes, power to forgive and forget our sins. Love is kind and kindness dares to be vulnerable, will you?

Kindness is vulnerable but it is not a push over for kindness is also tough. There are times when kindness must say to the alcoholic, “You must suffer the pains of withdrawal.” There are times when kindness must say NO and at these times this can appear to be unkind but in reality it is loving. There are times when kindness says to a spoiled child, “You can’t have it.” and what you really need is discipline. That’s kindness, it may not appear to be, but it is. So the great question becomes, “When is kindness to be tough, and when is it to be tender?” Paul doesn’t answer that, he simply says, “Love is kind.” and he leaves it there.  Jesus demonstrated both types of kindness, when He drove the moneychangers out of the temple He was being tough. When He told the Pharisees they were whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones,” He was being tough. When He told them they were “walking around with beams in their eyes trying to pick specks out of other people’s eyes.” He was being tough. But was He being unkind? No, He was doing the kindest thing He could do, giving those living a lie the truth.  Then there were other moments when He demonstrated tender kindness, like when He walked underneath a sycamore tree and seeing an old tax-collector said “come down let’s go to your house”. He could have said, “Zacchaeus, you’re the scum of the earth, you have used your power to extort from almost everybody in the whole community.” And He would have been right. But instead He demonstrated tender kindness and Zacchaeus was changed forever.

The truth is we would rather act with the tough kindness and when it comes to being shown kindness we want the tender. We like those moments of tender kindness in Scriptures, like that man who carried the cross for Jesus because of He was tired and weary after His all-night trial and the brutality of His beatings. We say “that’s kindness” and we applauded Simon for carrying the cross for our Lord. But we forget the weight of that kindness, the heaviness of each step. Simon didn’t think about kindness, he acted and like the Good Samaritan, it will cost us. Kindness dares to carry the cross all the way to Calvary, will you?

1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love is patient”

Paul compresses in four very short verses an amazing descriptive analysis of what the most excellent way is. After contrasting the indispensable virtue of love with spiritual gifts, Knowledge, Faith, Giving and Commitment he reminds us that Love should not be an abstract concept but a living reality. Now Paul shows us that love is made up of many elements, like a ray of light that passes through a prism coming out the other side broken into its different components. The picture of Love that Paul paints for us reveals the full spectrum of love in a majestic rainbow of color. For the next several weeks we will be looking into the full spectrum of the eternal gift of Love, my desire is that this becomes more than just an analysis of love but a discovery of its depths. Each active color of love relates to our relationships and reveals actions concerned with the present, here and now of everyday life. Christianity cannot become a separate or an added component to life; it is the inspiration for everyday living because God has breathed His eternal gift of love into our everyday temporal existence. Love then is not simply a component of life but love is an intent, a purpose, to direct the thoughts, words and actions of our everyday life. So this intent to love, to live life with purpose, motivated and moved by the directing power of love is our greatest need. Love is:

• Patience

Loves first colorful ray of light is seen in patience which is made up of two words meaning “long” and “anger.” The word literally means long tempered and without a willingness to wait love would be quick to give up. We live in a short society, our attention spans are short and our patience is even shorter so is it any wonder that our relationships are being shorted. Patience is more than just a long waiting time it is refusing to give into anger in the wait. The King James says that love suffereth long it is the quality of self-restraint in the face of provocation that does not hastily retaliate or promptly punish. It’s the rarely seen quality of having a long fuse, which some mistake for passive inaction. In reality it is love waiting for opportunity to begin, a love that is not in a hurry but calmly ready and willing to do its good work when the door of opportunity opens.

Every one of us understands the need for patience including the kindergarten teacher helping one of her students to put on his boots. He had asked for help which she could plainly she that he needed, yet even with her pulling and him pushing, the boots resisted. Finally the second boot gave way to her stubborn persistence but she could have cried when the little boy said, “Teacher, they’re on the wrong feet.” Looking down she sighed at the sight, sure enough, they were. Struggling to remove the boots she managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the right feet. It was then that the little boy announced, “these aren’t my boots.” Yet she bit her tongue instead of getting in his face and screaming, “Why didn’t you say so?” like she wanted to. Once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off, and as the last one gave way he said, “They’re my brother’s boots, my Mom made me wear them.” Not knowing whether to laugh or cry she mustered up the grace to once again wrestle the boots onto his feet. Sitting back she said, “Now, where are your mittens?” Looking down he said, “I stuffed them in the toes of my boots for safe keeping…” We have all been there when our patience, like an elastic band, is stretched to breaking, when we are tempted to tire and give up on love. Without patience, anger would be aroused splintering our relationships, leaving us like tattered rags empty with only the bitter bile of resentment to suck on. We need the colorful illuminating light of patience to bathe our everyday struggles in the soft glow of its warmth.

In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus tells a parable about a king who decides to settle accounts with his servants. The first to be brought before the king owes ten thousand bags of gold and being unable to pay the king orders that the man, his wife and children and everything he has be sold to repay the debt. Upon hearing this, the servant fell down and begged him to be patient with him and he would pay back everything he owed. The king was so filled with pity that his patient love forgave and wiped out the entire debt. The servant then went out and found a man that owed him one hundred silver coins. The man was also unable to pay and requested patience. He refused and he had him put into prison until he could pay the money back yet others took notice and told the king. The king had the man arrested, jailed and tortured until he could pay back every penny that he owed him.

Why should we show patience? Because God is patient with us! How many times have you let God down only to experience His patience? We like the first man have also been shown an incredible amount of patience and mercy, so why shouldn’t we also extend the same to others? If we are saved then we have not just heard about patience or read about it we have received and experienced it. God has visited us with His patient love and patience deeply received results in patience freely offered. It’s time to stop underlined passages on patience and start practicing them. Are you grabbing at the throat, demanded payment or giving patience? It’s easy to grow tired of loving but when we consider Him who endured such sufferings of sinners against Himself we will not become weary or fainthearted in our love Hebrews  12:1-3.