My heart to you is given. Oh, do give yours to me!
We’ll lock them up together, and throw away the key.
Frederick Saunders
LOVE is the strongest emotional need of all human beings since time began. It changes lives and transforms the soul. Please read the following bible verses and notes slowly, deliberately, taking in the depth of each thought, so that God’s word will illuminate the fullness of LOVE.
John Wesley’s Bible Notes on 1 Corinthians 13:
The nature and properties of love, vs. 4-7;
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
4. The love of God, and of our neighbour for God’s sake, is patient toward, all men. It, suffers all the weakness, ignorance, errors, and infirmities of the children of God; all the malice and wickedness of the children of the world: and all this, not only for a time, but to the end. And in every step toward overcoming evil with good, it is kind, soft, mild, benign. It inspires the sufferer at once with the most amiable sweetness, and the most fervent and tender affection. Love acteth not rashly – Does not hastily condemn any one; never passes a severe sentence on a slight or sudden view of things. Nor does it ever act or behave in a violent, headstrong, or precipitate manner. Is not puffed up – Yea, humbles the soul to the dust.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
5. It doth not behave indecently – Is not rude, or willingly offensive, to any. It renders to all their due – Suitable to time, person, and all other circumstances. Seeketh not her own – Ease, pleasure, honour, or temporal advantage. Nay, sometimes the lover of mankind seeketh not, in some sense, even his own spiritual advantage; does not think of himself, so long as a zeal for the glory of God and the souls of men swallows him up. But, though he is all on fire for these ends, yet he is not provoked to sharpness or unkindness toward any one. Outward provocations indeed will frequently occur; but he triumphs over all. Love thinketh no evil – Indeed it cannot but see and hear evil things, and know that they are so; but it does not willingly think evil of any; neither infer evil where it does not appear. It tears up, root and branch, all imagining of what we have not proof. It casts out all jealousies, all evil surmises, all readiness to believe evil.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
6. Rejoiceth not in iniquity – Yea, weeps at either the sin or folly of even an enemy; takes no pleasure in hearing or in repeating it, but desires it may be forgotten for ever. But rejoiceth in the truth – Bringing forth its proper fruit, holiness of heart and life. Good in general is its glory and joy, wherever diffused in all the world.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
7. Love covereth all things – Whatever evil the lover of mankind sees, hears, or knows of any one, he mentions it to none; it never goes out of his lips, unless where absolute duty constrains to speak. Believeth all things – Puts the most favourable construction on everything, and is ever ready to believe whatever may tend to the advantage of any one character. And when it can no longer believe well, it hopes whatever may excuse or extenuate the fault which cannot be denied. Where it cannot even excuse, it hopes God will at length give repentance unto life. Meantime it endureth all things – Whatever the injustice, the malice, the cruelty of men can inflict. He can not only do, but likewise suffer, all things, through Christ who strengtheneth him.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
13. Faith, hope, love – Are the sum of perfection on earth;
love alone is the sum of perfection in heaven.
John Wesley (1703-1791)
