Articles
Loving Yourself and Others Righteously
1 Corinthians 13 is a chapter that is read at many weddings because it speaks to the eternally enduring aspects of love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” In the Bible, God uses marriage as an example to explain how the act of righteous love is unconditional and is intended to bring others closer to God. 1 Peter 3:1 says,” Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives.” In a marriage husbands serve God by protecting their wives and leading their household with righteous compassion. Wives serve God by supporting their husbands with respect and righteous acts of service. Biblical love requires you to bring glory to God by obediently serving Him above all else.
Your relationship with God is key in loving yourself and others unconditionally because it teaches the value of each unique soul. Like in a marriage, God created each person in His church to have unique strengths and roles to properly worship, glorify, and serve Him. In 1 Corinthians 12, the apostle Paul compares the church to a human body. 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 reads, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.” A finger or foot serves the body with its own strengths in the same way you encourage others and glorify God with your strengths (1 Cor. 12:18-30). Paul explains that the purpose of this diversity is not to cause division or pride in oneself, but to expand the overall body’s love for God and one another.
Jesus clarified the righteous love perfectly when He said to a Pharisee, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40) Righteous love doesn’t involve taking abuse or disciplining harshly. Rebuking, teaching, nurturing, and correcting should all be done in a way that is a pleasing aroma to God. Colossians 3:14-17 says, “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
