A Little Love Goes A Long Way
A LITTLE LOVE GOES A LONG WAY
“If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well:” - James 2:8 –
To be successful in this life requires cooperation from people in all areas of your life. Prosperity comes through partnership.
In order to gain cooperation and avoid conflict it is necessary to have a pleasing personality and to treat others in a way that will make them glad to work together with you in achieving your objectives.
The most effective way to have peace and harmony with others is to follow the clear teachings and priorities of Scripture. It is so important to love God and obey his instruction. Only then will he begin to bless you with peace and favor in your association with other people.
“When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” - Proverbs 16:7 -
Our first love ought to be our Lord who loved us first.
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. - Mark 12:30 –
Our second love is not to love ourselves; but to love others as much as we love ourselves.
“And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. - Mark 12:31 –
Love in the Bible is synonymous with the word “Charity”. This is the purest love; giving yourself for others.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” - John 15:13 -
For the rest of our outline today we will be studying what charity is and what charity does from -1 Corinthians 13:4-8 -
Charity suffereth long, and is kind;
Here the word suffereth does not mean to endure pain and anguish, rather, it means to allow something to happen.
When Jesus said in – Mark 10:14 – “suffer the little children to come unto me” he was correcting his disciples who were trying to prevent Christ from being over run with children. Jesus was saying “allow” the little children to come to me.
With that in mind our verse tells us that charity “suffereth long”, or, makes allowances for people and is kind to them in their situations. We ought to make allowances for those who are not yet saved or are newly saved and do it in kindness.
In some cases, people just have not been taught better. For more on this see the story of Apollos in - Acts 18:24-26 -.
I remember when I didn’t know better and others were gracious in overlooking my behavior. Allow for others to learn and to grow.
It is often the person that is ignorant of his own shortcomings that points out the flaws in others.
Charity envieth not.
I think almost all of us have been the object of envy at some time in our life. Unfortunately, we have probably also been guilty of envy ourselves. It is not wise to be envious of the blessings that others may receive.
When we are envious we act as others have received blessings that we may never have. Of course, this is not true for the child of God.
Any child of God that is walking close to their God is keenly aware of their blessings from day to day and hour to hour. Christ has commanded us to trust in his presence and not in our possessions for our provision:
“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” - Hebrews 13:5 –
It does not stand to reason that God would move heaven and earth to give us his only child and then not provide for any of our other needs.
“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” - Romans 8:32 –
If you are not sufficiently blessed examine your goals and what you are seeking after. It may be the wrong thing.
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” - Matthew 6:33 –
On the other hand, we may be envious of things that are not right for us to have. From time to time we are subject to be envious of those who reap the temporary rewards of sin for a season. I would refer you to Psalm 73:1-17. Pay close attention to verses two and three and also verses sixteen and seventeen.
In verses two and three the Psalmist tells us that he almost made a catastrophic mistake. Here he says that he lost his grounding in the ways of God when he was envious of those he admits were foolish. It happened when he took his eyes off of the Lord and “saw the prosperity of the wicked.”
He coveted wicked things that God says we have no business with. And, after much complaining about the prosperity of wicked people, the writer admits in verse sixteen that it was difficult to understand how the wicked got away with such behavior.
That is until verse seventeen when he realizes that all the wicked seem to possess in this life will pass away. Then in eternity they will have nothing but hopelessness and separation from God.
Theirs is really not an enviable position and we sin against God when we desire the fruits of evil behavior.
Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.
The word vaunteth means to boast or magnify by vanity. Vanity is that which is not real. Charity keeps it real. True love is self-evident and does not rely on deception to accomplish it’s ends.
True love “is not puffed up”, does not need a pat on the back. It does what it does for the sake of love because it cannot do otherwise. Try telling a patriot to stop loving their country or a mother to stop loving her child. They just do. This is true whether they get praise or not.
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own;
As unlikely as it sounds I actually found a wise saying in, of all places, a fortune cookie! I know it is hard to believe. My cookie contained a little paper with a big truth written on it; “Love seeks to give something to others while lust seeks to get something for itself.”
It would not be love if it had a selfish motive. It is certain that you cannot love without giving, and you cannot give without loving. Simply stated, love puts others before itself.
“Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”
- Philippians 2:4 -
Is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Someone that loves you is never on guard or expecting the worst. The very fact that love behaves this way is what makes betrayal so devastating to person that is loving.
But what would love be like if we were always on guard, always distrustful. It wouldn’t be love at all would it.
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in truth;
Love hates lies. God is love. Satan is the father of all lies. There will be no liars in heaven. They all go straight to liars’ lake (Rev 21:8). That is unless they receive the love of God through Jesus Christ.
If we love God, which is the first commandment, we will love what he loves. God loves those who tell the truth and also those that tell the lies. Christ tasted death for every man. And because God loves them he gives them a chance for mercy. We should do no less.
“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” - Matthew 5:44 -
Beareth all things,
Your friend, neighbor, or even your enemy needs help from time to time. If you begin to pay it forward day by day there will be help for you in your time of need.
I think of a lady who our daughter knows whose house burned to the ground. We felt compassion for the loss she and her family suffered. We took an offering for her at church. Many gave and my family had a small part in the offering.
Then one day my wife needed cancer surgery and we needed to come up with a portion of the overall cost prior to the surgery as we were paying out of pocket. The day of the operation was approaching and many helped us reach our goal; including this woman whose house had burned down. Only she gave to our family many times more than she had received from us.
Be there for each other. Whether friend or family, stranger or enemy. You will reap what you sow. You will reap later than you sow. And, you will always reap more than you sow. Be careful to sow love and not evil.
Believeth all things,
How many times have you heard a loving mother say, “my child would never lie to me.” Well they are the only ones that believe that. But they do believe because they love.
There are more people that you can believe than people that you cannot believe. You can not go through life missing opportunities to be blessed by people because you think that they might let you down.
Even if you cannot believe all that people say; believe the promise that “Charity never faileth”, because God will never fail to keep his promise to you in blessing you for your obedience to his command to love one another.
“God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” - Numbers 23:19 -
Hopeth all things,
Life can be approached only two ways, optimism or pessimism. It all depends on the attitude you approach life with.
As a U.S. Amy helicopter pilot for ten years I learned much about the affect that attitude has on making a successful landing. If the attitude of the aircraft is nose-down you will lose too much altitude too fast and you will crash. That is if you even make it to the runway. If your nose is too high in the air you will overshoot your intended target.
Don’t be Poly Anna and think that nothing will ever fail. And, don’t be pessimistic, gloomy and depressed like Eeyore. There must be a balance where you don’t have your head in the clouds or your nose in the dirt. That happy place is called “hope”.
“…knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience, and experience, hope:” - Romans 5:3-4 -
Endureth all things.
Love is the great source of strength in our world. We refuse to give up on others because we love them. Like wise we refuse to give up on ourselves because we know that someone loves us.
“For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” - Hebrews 12:3 -
Charity never faileth.
The Apostle Paul was absolutely convinced that God loved him and that God promised to never change. And, because God cannot lie, Paul had no fear or anxiety about the steadfastness of God’s love for him.
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 8:38-39 –
Because God loves us as he does Paul; we can have the same assurance that God will never fail us. We are invited by God himself to “… come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” - Hebrews 4:16 –
When we extend ourselves to help others in need, or even when we reach out to seek peace and harmony with a difficult person, we can be confident that God is standing by our side.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” - Psalm 46:1 –
Thanks for reading. I hope you have been encouraged in some small way. Stay tuned. In February I will be writing about success and prosperity in the home.
God loves you and so do I
J.R. Hodges
