Whenever I read 1 Corinthians 13, the “love” chapter, one word comes to my mind: “Naive.” Stick with me and I will explain. I feel in my heart that this chapter about love is one of, if not the most, important bitts of information for my or any Christian’s life. It explains that love is the most important ingredient of one’s life. That without love, hope and faith do not work. Love is so important that the bible explains without love you are nothing! That’s pretty serious business. That says to me that you could be the most influential, anointed, walking in the gifts of the spirit person in the world. But without love, you are nothing.
This says to me that love plays a dramatic role in a Christian’s life. I got an awesome revelation on love and it has helped me so, so much. This is something I strive for everyday in my life. To me, saying “I love everyone, and walk in love towards even my enemies” really wasn’t good enough. Someone might gasp at that. But I just know in my heart that if love is explained like it is in this chapter, that “faking it” could just not cut it. And my spirit confirmed that. I honestly believe the saying, “I love that person, I may not like them, but I love them” is inaccurate and not Godly whatsoever. I believe you must establish a true love in your heart that has a compassion and desire to be loving to another human being. How do we establish this though? How do we make ourselves love everyone, even those people that we “love but don’t like?” Well at the beginning of this I mentioned a word that comes to my mind every time I read this chapter. The word is “Naïve.” I believe that in my heart, and it has worked for me in my own life, that presuming the best of everyone and seeing past the rude, hate, and disgust someone may have for you and only looking at the best in them, will establish a pure love towards humankind.
Now why the word naïve? Well it may seem naïve to hear someone insult you and then you brush it off as if they didn’t really mean it. Looking in the eyes of someone calling you a profane word or an insulting name and say to them, “oh, you don’t really mean that, you must not be talking about me” sounds naïve. Or when a friend tells you about Betty Joe insulting you. Responding with “No, no Betty Joe doesn’t really mean that, she must be talking about someone else” sounds naïve. People would respond to you thinking you’re naïve for not thinking that person is talking about you. I’ve heard this, “Obviously they are talking about you!” And I just say, “Nope, they aren’t talking about me.” Even when it is apparent they are! No it’s not being naïve, it’s seeing the best of every person and walking in love. It’s avoiding confrontation all together. It’s bringing the light into a dark situation by not focusing on what the problem is but going past it and seeing the good in something.
I could go on and on about this. A biblical example of someone walking in love in the face of someone ridiculing another person would be Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman. I won’t take the space on my paper to write out the verse, but the “Dillon Mavrich paraphrase” is…Jesus asked this woman for a drink, this woman, being a Samaritan woman and recognizing Jesus was a Jew, made a racial comment about Jesus asking her for something. Jesus could have easily got offended but instead changed the subject and began talking to her about salvation! (John 4:7-10) That is exactly how we are supposed to be with every trying situation like that in our life! We should avoid every instance of dispute or debate or disagreement and make every effort to show the love of God in us. That even means going beside ourselves and seeming naïve to a situation. Love is the most important part of a Christians every day walk and without it, there is no point in even trying to accomplish anything else for the kingdom. Working for God without love is like making Mexican food at a Chinese restaurant. The bible says, “God so LOVED the world…” He only has one purpose here on earth, and it is love.
