1 Corinthians 13:1–7 (ESV): If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

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.

Love is not always saying I love you or I will pray for you. At times it means sacrifice. Many times we choose to wait for God or someone else to move the mountains in the lives of others. Instead we, like the soldier’s fiancé, need to climb into the belfry and cling to the clapper until it beats us silly in order to move the mountains for those we love. I find we are very quick in our self righteousness to point out the faults in others but much slower to be beat silly for them. For the sake of the gospel (this includes our enemies), we are to bear all their burdens, believe their statements, hope with them to the end, and endure whatever may come. As the clapper beats us against the bell, the Cromwell’s of life will take note and be moved to say, “Curfew shall not ring tonight!” A mountain will be moved and God will be glorified not in a fancy statement or prayer but in a personal act of devotion to all who we choose to love.

Pastor Aaron