Love’s Standard

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God’s been dealing with me about “tightening up” my love walk.   I do endeavor to treat others the way I want to be treated.   However, there’s still plenty of room for improvement!  So, I’m going to be studying this subject and implementing what I learn and of course, teaching what I learn to others.  Today, I just want to share the Bible chapter on love…from the Amplified Bible.  Have you ever read this chapter, I Corinthians 13, from the Amplified Bible?  Well, it truly sets the standard, Love’s Standard.  The Amplified Bible incorporates the original Greek and Hebrew translations of words we find in the King James Bible.  It places these original meanings in brackets and parentheses in line with the text.  Take a look at the Amplified version of this text.  Don’t get nervous if it seems too hard to achieve.  God will never ask us to do something unless he is planning to do it through us!  Be encouraged and be blessed as we measure ourselves against Love’s Standard and ACHIEVE this goal through the power of Almighty God!

1 Corinthians 13 (Amplified Bible)

            1 IF I [can] speak in the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love (that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion such as is inspired by God’s love for and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

            2 And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).

            3 Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory, but have not love (God’s love in me), I gain nothing.

            4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.

            5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

            6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.

            7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].

            8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].

            9 For our knowledge is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect), and our prophecy (our teaching) is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect).

            10 But when the complete and perfect (total) comes, the incomplete and imperfect will vanish away (become antiquated, void, and superseded).

            11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.

            12 For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been fully and clearly known and understood [by God].

            13 And so faith, hope, love abide [faith--conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and divine things; hope--joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love--true affection for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Want to use this article in your ezine, blog, or website?  You have my permission as long as you include this complete blurb with it:  Min. Patricia D. Samuels, MA is the founder of Patricia Samuels Ministries, Inc. and the International Association of Proverbs 31 Women.  Visit her websites today and be blessed by something you view, read, or hear:  http://www.patriciasamuels.org and http://www.iap31w.com.