Some call Him Savior. Some call Him a moral teacher. Some call Him a prophet. Some only call His name as a curse word. Regardless of what people call Him, Jesus is almost universally known.
Despite what people call Him, and as much as people claim to know about Jesus, there are still so many questions that swirl around—
Who is this Man?
How can someone be both God and Man at the same time?
Did Jesus just show up in Bethlehem, or was He around earlier?
Was He really perfect? Could He really live His whole life without sinning once?
How could He die and yet come back to life?
Better yet: why did He have to die at all?
Does it really matter whether or not He was resurrected from the dead?
As we approach this Easter season, more and more people’s thoughts will be turning toward this Man. Please join me as we consider this simple, yet profound question: Who Is Jesus? The answer to that one simple question will be life-changing!
We are taking a practical look at the incredible definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13. We’re doing this in the context of learning how to love the “unloveable”—or maybe I should say, loving those who are the most resistant to real love. If we can show them love, how much more will the love of Jesus be seen!
All of these verbs are present tense verbs. That means they aren’t exhausted in the past, and they aren’t waiting for future conditions to improve—they are in operation NOW.
Far too many people know Christians more by what we’re against than by what we’re for. So where the biblical text say “love does not” or “love isn’t,” I’ve changed it into the positive “love is.”
You can read about the first five attributes love love by clicking here.
The next five attributes are:
Love is graceful
The root word means something that should be covered up, or something we’re ashamed of. Because our words and actions are graceful, they are things we wouldn’t have to defend, or explain, or apologize for later. They are words and actions that wouldn’t embarrass us.
“Agape will do nothing that misbecomes it.” —Matthew Henry
Love knows our relationship > my rights
True love “does not demand its own way” (New Living Translation) nor does it “insist on its own rights” (Amplified Bible). Instead it always seeks ways that the relationship can be repaired or enhanced, even if that means giving up something I consider to be “my right.”
NOTE: I’m not saying that you become a doormat. This is not a license for someone to abuse you, but it is a call for us to balance our responses. Romans 12:18 says as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
The Amplified Bible says it well: love isnot touchy or fretful or resentful.
This Greek word means not getting stirred up or exasperated. So we need to lighten up!
There are some places where we’ve become too sensitive, too touchy, too short-fused. The fire of hurt has replaced the fire of love. So Matthew Henry advises us: “Where the fire of love is kept in, the flames of wrath will not easily kindle, nor long keep burning.”
Love is forgiving
The New International Version says lovekeeps no record of wrongs.
This Greek phrase speaks of an accountant tallying up the hurts (where there is an overdrawn account), seeing there is a debt to be paid back, and then appointing himself as the bill collector. True love cancels those IOUs.
We don’t forgive others because they deserve forgiveness, but we forgive others because we received forgiveness from God that we did not deserve!
For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (Matthew 6:14 AMP)
Love is God-honoring
Agape loves what God loves and hates what God hates.
Agape loves when people find God’s truth, and hates anything that blocks that pursuit.
Agape loves the sinner and hates the sin.
“The sins of others are the grief of an agape spirit [not] its sport or delight; they will touch it to the quick….” —Matthew Henry
Here’s where the real test comes in: How will you apply these attributes of love to someone in your life? More specifically: to someone you think is “unloveable”?
I know you have someone in your life that you think is unloveable. With that person’s face clearly in mind, how will you fill in the blanks:
I can be graceful in…
I can give up my right to…
I need to lighten up in this area…
I must forgive them for…
I need to pray for a breakthrough in…
If you would like a downloadable PDF of this worksheet, click here –> Love is… worksheet 2
I’m a planner. I like to plan out my personal schedule. I also like to plan out my preaching schedule. Near the end of each calendar year, I spend an extended time in prayer asking God to show me what He would like me to share with my congregation in the upcoming new year.
By no means should this override being Spirit-directed in the moment. I need to remain sensitive to the “course corrections” that the Holy Spirit wants me to make, but I also think planning ahead is using His wisdom as well.
As I approach each week’s message preparation time, there is a temptation to just stick with the plan, no matter what. After all, I know what I’ve prayerfully planned, so I can just get down to the business of crafting a sermon, right?
This wise counsel from George Mueller—a pastor that was preeminent in prayer—helps me to check my impulses…
“Rather than presuming to know what is best for the hearers, I ask the Lord to graciously teach me the subject I should speak about.”
My prayer goes something like this: “Lord, You know I will be speaking this Sunday; You know each person who is going to attend our service this week; You know exactly what they have been going through and what they are about to go through; You know exactly what they need to hear this week, so speak those words to me now.”
How arrogant for me to say, “Lord, here’s my sermon. Please bless it.”
Instead I need to pray, “Lord, what message will you bless? Please speak those words to me.”
Pastor, please don’t presume to know what is best for your congregation, but ask the One who truly knows to give you His timely word.
The greatest definition of love in the history of mankind is given to us in 1 Corinthians 13. This is the “gold standard” to which all of us should strive to pattern our lives.
But notice that right at the beginning, Paul says, “Love IS” (verse 4). Not love feels good or even love does; but love is. Love is not love because it makes us feel good. Love is not love because we did something nice. Love is love because it measures up to this standard in 1 Corinthians.
Here are the first five attributes of love.
Love is patient
Patient love doesn’t lose heart, but stays hopeful.
It endures patiently and bravely in enduring misfortune and disappointment.
“It can endure evil, injury, and provocation, without being filled with resentment, indignation, or revenge.” —Matthew Henry
Love is kind
It is pleasant and courteous.
It both seizes opportunities and makes opportunities to show kindness.
…as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:18)
Love is catching others doing something good
The biblical phrase is love is not envious, but I want to turn the positive into a negative. Far too often we Christians are known more for what we against, not what we’re for. So the positive way of saying this: we rejoice when others succeed. Or, we catch them doing something good.
Love is complementing others
Again, we turn the negative love does not boast into a positive, and say love complements others.
Agape raises the value of the object of its love.
Love is others-focused
Again, turning the negative love is not proud into a positive.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)
Here’s where the real test comes in: How will you apply these attributes of love to someone in your life? More specifically: to someone you think is “unloveable”?
I know you have someone in your life that you think is unloveable. With that person’s face clearly in mind, how will you fill in the blanks:
I can show patience by…
I can be kind to them by…
I can rejoice in their success in this area…
I can applaud them in their…
I can see them becoming…
If you would like a downloadable PDF of this worksheet, click here –> Love is… worksheet 1
Jesus came to love us. And for those that have received His love, He commands us to love others just like He loved us. In fact, Jesus said all of the commandments in the Bible could be summed up in just one word: LOVE.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength…. Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:30-31)
But what about people who aren’t very lovable? Are we really supposed to love them? Isn’t there some sort of “escape clause” to let us out of loving those people who get on our nerves, or who are mean to us?
Although you probably already know what the answer is (in case you don’t: we’re commanded to love everyone), the Bible helps us learn how and why to love the unloveable.
If you missed any of the messages in this series, check them out here:
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I’m convinced that many of us have missed answers to prayer because the answers seemed “too practical” or required “too much work” from us. Consider the well-known example of the defeat of the city of Jericho as recorded in the Bible.
Jericho was a massive fortress. Archeologists tell us that the city encompassed over eight acres, and was surrounded by walls which were 30-feet tall and 20-feet wide. Joshua was a brilliant military strategist who up to this point had never suffered a defeat. He asks God for help in defeating this fortress, and God tells him, “March!”
That’s it. Not pray, pray, and pray some more. Not go on a 40-day fast. Make no mistake, the Israelites had been in a period of renewed passion and prayer. As they entered Canaan, they sought God, renewed their vow to serve Him alone, and celebrated the Passover just days before encountering Jericho.
Sometimes our prayers have to have feet.
Sort of like abolitionist Frederick Douglass who said, “Praying for freedom never did me any good til I started praying with my feet.”
We need to pray for the salvation of our loved ones, and talk to them about Christ.
We need to pray for God to open the door for employment, and mail the resume.
We need to pray for God’s help on a test, and study hard.
We need to pray, and we need to march.
I love the verb tense in this story! God told Joshua, “I have delivered Jericho into your hands” (Joshua 6:2). Later on, after the Israelites completed their 13th hike around Jericho, Joshua said, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city” (v. 16).
If you are praying for something that is in alignment with God’s Word, then God has given you your Jericho. But you may not see the walls come tumbling down until you march. Keep praying, keep marching, keep circling it in prayer, and watch those walls crumble!
To check out the others messages in this series on prayer called Praying Circles, please click here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
While I was reading From Azusa To Africa To The Nations, I came across a fascinating statement from William Seymour, the pastor who led his congregation into that early 20th-century revival that shook the world. Pastor Seymour was so hungry for God’s presence in his life that he set aside five hours each day to seek God’s deeper touch. He prayed liked this for over 3 years. At this point He read about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts, and something stirred in him to pray for this same outpouring on himself and on his congregation. He then increased his prayer time to seven hours a day, and continued to pray in this fashion for another two years before the answer came and the revival broke out.
I did the math. That means he prayed 11,500 hours!
How many of us get tired after praying just one hour?
Would it be easier for you to tenaciously pursue God in prayer if you knew He was also tenaciously pursuing you? Mark Batterson points out in The Circle Maker that the verb in Psalm 23:6 is poorly translated in English as shall follow me. He reminds us that it’s really a hunting term, used for a hunter in hot pursuit of his quarry. God’s love and mercy are in hot pursuit of you!
The Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for Him! (Isaiah 30:18)
Want to see a great story about this in the life of Jesus? Matthew tells us about a get-away that Jesus and His disciples took. While they were relaxing, a woman barged in, imploring Jesus to heal her daughter. She would not be denied. She tenaciously implored Jesus to minister to her daughter. At last Jesus cried out, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.”
It may sound like this woman was pursuing Jesus. But Jesus put Himself in a place for her to find Him. He pursued her first.
As a Canaanite (a non-Jew), it was unsafe for her to travel to southern Israel.
As a woman, it was unacceptable for her to go talk to a man.
As a mother with a sick child at home, it was unwise for her to leave home.
So Jesus traveled to a region He has never been to before, and would never go back to again. He pursued this mother-in-need so that she could find Him in prayer!
God is in hot pursuit of you, too. He hears every prayer, so keep on tenaciously praying. Don’t settle, don’t give up, don’t stop! Pray as long as it takes for God to say to you, “You have great faith! Your request is granted.”
To check out the others messages in this series on prayer called Praying Circles, please click here.
My son Harrison plays high school baseball. Let’s just imagine that I’m his hitting coach. In order for this relationship to benefit him, a couple of things have to occur:
He has to want to improve, and
He has to want to receive instruction from me.
If he thinks he knows it all already, or if he wants to just hang out with the other guys on the team to try to pick up some tips by being around them, then my role of a coach isn’t going to benefit him much.
Let’s say that Harrison knows he needs to improve, and he’s willing to listen to my instruction. We head out for some batting practice, and he lets pitch after pitch sail by him without ever swinging at the ball. If he never swings the bat, there’s only one piece of advice I can give him: Swing the bat!
The same things hold true for us if we want to improve as pray-ers. We have to want to improve, and we have have to be willing to receive instruction from the Coach (in this case, the Holy Spirit). But we also have to give Him something to work with. If we let opportunity after opportunity sail by without praying about it, there’s only one piece of advice the Spirit can give us: Pray!
Jesus said the Holy Spirit would help lead us into oneness with Him—
The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26)
If we want to become better pray-ers, here’s how the Holy Spirit can help:
You have to admit that you need help in your prayer life.
You need to read your Bible (the everything that God says to you), and use God’s Word to help form your prayers.
Then, pray… swing the bat of prayer!
As you pray, listen to the voice of the the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, helping you to refine your prayers.
Your prayer time can become more meaningful, if you will tune into the Holy Spirit, and give Him something to work with.
To check out the others messages in this series on prayer called Praying Circles, please click here.
My fellow pastor, please consider these wise words from E.M. Bounds—
“No one having any knowledge of the existing facts, will deny the comparative lack of expository preaching in the pulpit effort of today. And none, we should, at least, imagine, will do other than lament the lack. Topical preaching, polemical preaching, historical preaching, and other forms of sermonic output have, one supposes, their rightful and opportune uses. But expository preaching—the prayerful expounding of the Word of God is preaching that is preaching—pulpit effort par excellence. For its successful accomplishment, however, a preacher needs must be a man of prayer. For every hour spent in his study-chair, he will have to spend two upon his knees.”
I believe God will be honored if we spend twice as much time praying our sermons as we do preparing our sermons.
There is an unusual story in 2 Kings about King Jehoash. Elisha the prophet was on his deathbed, Israel was morally bankrupt and on the brink of defeat. The entire Israeli army had been reduced to fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand infantry. It was in this hour of desperation that Jehoash sought out the counsel of Elisha.
Elisha said [to Jehoash], “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.
“Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”
Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”
What made Elisha angry is what I believe makes God angry. Jehoash came to God when the situation seemed impossible, but he wouldn’t pray it through. It’s almost as if he felt like three times was enough to pray, and then he needed to take it from there.
God wants us to pray BIG, but He also wants us to pray LONG.
We need to keep striking the ground (or as Mark Batterson would say, keep drawing the circle) until God answers. God gave Jehoash a promise of victory, but Jehoash didn’t pray long enough to see it through.
What are you praying for? What promise has God given you? God is glorified when you place your request in His hands, and leave it there. Keep on praying. Keep on striking. Keep on circling until God brings about what He has promised!
To check out the others messages in this series on prayer called Praying Circles, please click here.
Some call Him Savior. Some call Him a moral teacher. Some call Him a prophet. Some only call His name as a curse word. Regardless of what people call Him, Jesus is almost universally known.
![Loving The Unlovable [web]](https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/loving-the-unlovable-web.jpg)
Craig T. Owens 