My problems originate where?

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–7)

Read at weddings and other special occasions, the love chapter in first Corinthians is so familiar it has almost become a platitude. The problem with platitudes is that we hear them so often we forget what they really mean and usually fail to do what they really teach.

The love chapter is like this. Love is proactive yet it is easy to say I love you to family members and yet be impatient with them or unkind. It is easy to say I love my friends but I can envy them and I can boast about myself to them. I can say I love people but I can be arrogant and rude if they cut me off in traffic or talk down to me in some way.

As Tozer says, we have a problem in that we want to be known as being spiritual, close to God and walking in the Truth, but how easy to forget that “every flower and every fruit has a stalk and every stalk has a root, and long before there is any bloom there must be a careful tending of the root and the stalk.”

This morning’s Bible readings took me to both Matthew and Mark where Jesus tells His disciples:

“Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” (Matthew 15:17–20)

He was talking about roots, or to put it in technical terms, the GIGO principle is not our problem but rather the difficulty is the garbage that is already in there, the sin principle, the love of ‘I want what I want’ without paying any attention to the will of God. He says to think pure and wholesome thoughts, not immoral or mean, or false and greedy. Without those being weeded out, there is no fruit in the garden of a life, or at least none that matches the description of what God wants.

Tozer says we misunderstand thinking the flower and the fragrance and the fruit come by some kind of magic, instead of by cultivation. Another misunderstanding is thinking it will appear if I stare at it long enough, memorizing the right verses, going to the best conferences, faithfully attending worship services. All are good things but the doing of them does not remove the weeds nor make love grow in my heart. Confession is needed to clear out the junk:

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

Obedience to the Holy Spirit is also needed to produce the fruit:

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:3–8)

The devotional for today points out the many words in the Bible that are included under the banner of caring for others in obedience to God, words like: love, charity, brotherly kindness, tenderness, meekness, longsuffering, patience, forbearance, unity, gentleness. However they are expressed, they need to be more than mere words, more than platitudes and more than nice sounding promises. If my life is going to be fruitful, I must do them.

^^^^^^^^

Jesus, it is easy to find reasons to stay home, read a book, keep to myself, neglect the needs around me. I can say I don’t know how, and say that I am praying continually, but love is not passive. Love gives. I need to get off my butt and move.