Charity, Part IV: Charity Suffereth Long (1 Corinthians 13:4)
2022-12-31
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up (1 Corinthians 13:4)
Charity, or Christian love, suffers long... which we would think of as patience. But don’t rule out the suffering! Think of Christ’s patience with us over years of sin and failure, even after we came to the knowledge of His suffering for us. That is what we must do with others. Everyone from our outright enemy to the person who simply gets on our nerves... charity is kind to them throughout the entire time. To be like Jesus is to be this way. This is the lifelong lesson for every Christian. It is both an action and a state of mind; our innermost man has abandoned self-motive and is others directed.
Charity does not covet. Other people’s success does not rob you. You are not in competition with others, promoting yourself and sizing yourself up against others in terms of skills, property, or any other worldly metric. I know this exists because I have done all of it. Surely others have done it also.
The more I consider this kind of love, the more I consider I am no longer the part of the equation. Since we are crucified with Christ, our self-life has ended. The new life of Christ in us is to be invested in others, poured out for others, whoever they may be. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).