1 Corinthians 13

My fellow Believers,

Remember always that we are called to love.  And not just a little bit, either: we are called to love beyond even our innate ability to love.  We are called to love the unlovable.  The obnoxious, the ignorant, the dirty and rejected.  We're called to love the attractive, the intelligent, the rich and the reasonable.  We're called to love our friends.  More importantly, we're called to love our enemies.

We have to love.  Don't be a resounding gong.  Don't be a clanging cymbal.  Don't be content to gain nothing, or to be nothing.  Be what the One inside of you is.  Don't just show love, have love, or share love; but be love.  Learn how to be love.  Jesus did it and so can we.  So can you.

We have to love, we are called to love.  We are called to be patient and kind.  We are called to be humble.  We are called to rejoice with the truth.  We are called to protect, to trust, to hope, to persevere - always.

Remember that we are not called to envy.  We are not called to boast.  We are not called to be proud.  We are not called to dishonor others, or to seek only for ourselves.  We are not called to easy anger, or to keep records of wrongs.  We are not called to delight in evil. 

We are called to the impossible - for us.  For us it is impossible to love our enemies and bless those who curse us.  For us it is hard to be humble.  We often rejoice in falsehoods, fail to protect or trust, cease hoping, give up.  We envy too much, boast to often, and rally around our pride.  We dishonor others regularly.  Too regularly we rejoice in evil and keep long records of wrongs.  We are self-seeking above all.  We are called to what we cannot do in the flesh, but we are not called to love from who we are; we are called to love from who He is.  We are called to love because God is love and he can do nothing else but love, love, love.

We are called to love.  Please, please don't forget it, please please give yourself up to the call.

In love,

A fellow Believer