1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NKJV)
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it
does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not
self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love
does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
These verses start and stop with what love while the
center section focuses on what love is not. Matthew Henry writes of these
verses, “How lovely a mind is that which is tinctured throughout with such
benevolence, and has it diffused over its whole frame! Happy the man who has
this heavenly fire glowing in his heart, flowing out of his mouth, and
diffusing its warmth over all with whom he has to do! How lovely a thing would
Christianity appear to the world, if those who profess it were more actuated
and animated by this divine principle, and paid a due regard to a command on
which its blessed author laid a chief stress! A new commandment give I to you,
that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another,
Jn. 13:34. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, v. 35. Blessed
Jesus! how few of thy professed disciples are to be distinguished and marked
out by this characteristic!”
During a commencement address at his alma mater,
Northwestern University, the comedian Stephen Colbert offered some wise words
for life:
After I graduated from [Northwestern], I moved to Chicago
and did improv. Now there are very few rules about improvisation, but one of
the things I was taught early on is that you are not the most important person
in the scene. Everybody else is. And if they are the most important people in
the scene, you will naturally pay attention to them and serve them. But the
good news is you're in the scene too. So hopefully to them you're the most
important person, and they will serve you. No one is leading; you're all
following the follower, serving the servant. You cannot win improv.
And life is an improvisation. You have no idea what's
going to happen next and you are mostly just making things up as you go along.
And like improv, you cannot "win" your life …. I have my own show,
which [is] full of very talented people ready to serve me …. But at my best, I
am serving them just as hard, and together, we serve a common idea …. And a
sure sign that things are going well is when no one can really remember whose
idea was whose, or who should get the credit for what jokes. [Dave Zahl,
"No More Winning: Stephen Colbert on Love, Service, and Improv,"
Mbird blog (5-9-13)]
If only we would serve others out of love in this manner
that we would not consider ourselves to be most important, but instead a loving
servant. And hopefully the same would be true of those around us. What is
winning in life but to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your strength. Then He tells us to love one another. As
I have loved you, so you must love one another. Being able to truly love as The
Lord commands is winning in the game of life. For we become more like Jesus and
that is the goal of life.
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