Love is not proud

Monica gave us a book by Max Lucado last Christmas - A Love Worth Giving. It's a book about God's love. Why is that important? It's important because God is love; it's His very essence. The greatest virtue we can experience is LOVE. When we receive and give God's love, we are most like Him.

Please, get this book out and read it! If anything can really change our lives, it's the love of God. I Corinthians 13 is known as the Love Chapter. Max Lucado graciously cuts the love chapter into bite-sized pieces so that we can eat this delicious meal. Then it will become a part of us and we will be changed as Christ is formed in us..

It's sort of weird to think of Almighty God as humble, yet that is exactly what He is. Humility is the opposite of pride. But what does He have to be humble about? He's the Creator of everything, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. God is love (I Jn 4:8) and love is not proud (I Cor 13:4). Therefore, God is humble. He wants us to be humble, too.

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!" (Phil. 2:5-8)

Max goes on to say:

"Would you do what Jesus did? He swapped a spotless castle for a grimy stable. He exchanged the worship of angels for the company of killers. He could hold the universe in His palm but gave it up to float in the womb of a maiden.

If you were God, would you sleep on straw, nurse from a breast, and be clothed in a diaper? I wouldn't, but Christ did. . . . If you knew the tongues you made would mock you, the mouths you made would spit at you, the hands you made would crucify you, would you still make them? Christ did.

He humbled himself. He went from commanding angels to sleeping in the straw. From holding stars to clutching Mary's finger. The palm that held the universe took the nail of a soldier.

Why? Because that's what love does. It puts the beloved before itself. You soul was more important than his blood. Your eternal life was more important than his earthly life. Your place in heaven was more important to him than his place in heaven, so he gave up his so you could have yours.

. . . Want to love others as God has loved you? Put others before yourself."

I wept when I read these words. The Holy Spirit convicted me of my own selfishness and pride. When school is out, I always look forward to a vacation from responsibilities and demands put on me by others. For a little while I choose to become unavailable. It didn't happen this year, and I have felt very sorry for myself with much whining and complaining. But these beautiful words from the Bible and from Max Lucado have given me a fresh perspective. I repented of my pride and selfishness. As Max eloquently put it, "in a world of upward mobility, choose downward servility." Phil. 2:3 puts it in a nutshell:

Regard one another as more important than yourselves.