I John 4:7-12   Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 Corinthians 13 is a great chapter in the Bible as it gives a very powerful and clear message of what real love is. It gives us a great way to see how God is working in our lives as we seek to follow Him and bear fruit.   For many years I used this definition with students as a way of calling us to be who Christ is to us. Try this exercise now.  Read aloud each of the following lines putting your name in the blank.  

_______ is patient, 

_______ is kind and is not jealous; 

_______ does not brag and is not arrogant

_______ does not act unbecomingly; 

_______ it does not seek its own, 

_______ is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,

_______ bears all things, 

_______ believes all things, 

_______ hopes all things, 

_______ endures all things. 

_______ never fails;

 I had had many students who would always struggle so hard with this.  They felt it made them feel bad.  Would always say this is God’s desire for you and only in Him can we begin to live this way.  I had one student years later say that they put it in their bible and every morning they would recite it again and make a point to work on one of them daily.  It had transformed their life as they began to live in the promise God had made to them.  Where does God need to help you produce the fruit of love in your life?  Are you willing to work on it? 

Bonus:  If you really want to challenge yourself, get with another person and have them read your name in each of the blanks and then do it to them.  It’s a great discussion starter and a place to be.