“(Love)… Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:6-7)
The scripture above describes what our love should be like. Is this the way your love is? Are you enduring all things? When somebody says something against you, do you immediately fire back a word against that person? Or instead, do you say in your heart, “Poor thing. God have mercy on you. God bless you,” and you pray for the person earnestly from your heart? Do you think and behave like this even though the person has just slammed you with words that were not complimentary and that were downright hurtful?
The enemy in our midst will always make you believe somebody said something that the person did not really say. It is so common that we as Christians should have better sense. Let me tell you how I do it. The moment I hear that so and so said something against me, I take it with a grain of salt and say, “I don’t believe it. Anyhow, I am going to check it out.” I have checked out some of these things and sometimes I have found them to be so horrible. But it doesn’t change anything in my approach.
I remember the day when my wife Mavis and I were staying at another person’s house. We were in a room, just the two of us, talking. After we finished, I left her and went to the next room to talk to the lady of the house. We did not know at that time that this lady was a witch and that she could tell you anything you were talking about in private. I talked with her about an entirely different topic. However, later she called Mavis and told her everything that Mavis and I had talked about earlier in private. Mavis felt so betrayed and thought to herself, “How could he do that!” In such a situation, it takes the love of God in you to overcome and say, “No, sir! I will not believe one word of it!” If somebody comes to me and tells me things like this concerning my wife, you might as well go and talk to the stones outside. I am not going to believe one ounce of what is said, because I know my wife, and I know I love her and I know she loves me. That is a settled thing! I know that no matter what she said, she did not say it because she hated me or because she wanted to fire a shot back at me.
This is what God is talking about. If we could find such love one for another, what a beautiful church we would be. We would know that there is no harm meant no matter what is said or what is done. We would know that there was no intention to hurt. Wouldn’t you like to be part of such a church? Let me tell you a secret: God is going to have a people in the earth that will be just like that and the offer to be a part of it has already been given out to all of us. Strive to be one of them!