God is Patient, God is Kind...

There is a good chance that you’ve heard 1 Corinthians 13 at a wedding: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud…” Lovely words! But read the verse more closely, and you might feel like the passage is as much a rebuke as it is an inspiration. Without love, even our most impressive achievements are nothing; without love, we are nothing. Preaching on this passage, David reminded us that scripture teaches that God is love, and thus we can find comfort in knowing that first and foremost, these words describe God:

when we read this passage, we should think of God, not of me. The love described in this chapter tells us “How God loves me.” So, we can read, “God is patient, God is kind. God does not envy, God does not boast, God is not proud. God is not rude, God is not self-seeking, God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs.” This is how God loves us.