{"id":1553,"date":"2019-04-26T09:36:31","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T17:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1553"},"modified":"2019-04-26T09:36:31","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T17:36:31","slug":"devotion-1-corinthians-134a-love-never-fails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1553","title":{"rendered":"Devotion 1 Corinthians 13:4a Love Never Fails"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Corinthians 13:4a<\/b>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Love never fails.<\/i><\/p>\n

Mark 12:31<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0The second is this: \u2018Love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019 There is no commandment greater than these.<\/i><\/p>\n

Mark 11:25-26<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.\u00a026<\/a>[\u201cBut if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.\u201d]<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cLove never fails.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 God never stops loving us. From before we are born to the day our earthly flesh dies, God has loved us and given us every opportunity to love Him back.\u00a0 He called to us even when we told Him \u201cno.\u201d\u00a0 After we have said yes to His mercy and grace and then have acted in deeply hurtful ways to Him, He loves us.\u00a0 His love never fails.\u00a0 It is with us always.\u00a0 But what about when we fail, does He give up on us?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 There is nothing we could do to stop His love because we never did anything to earn His love.\u00a0 Many people have repented for yelling angry, even hateful, things to Him.\u00a0 He still loved.\u00a0 Many people have done disgusting things with Him right there.\u00a0 He still loved.\u00a0 Yes, we fail Him.\u00a0 People can stop loving.\u00a0 God never stops loving. Not under any circumstance does His love stop.\u00a0 True love, that is a God-like love, never fails.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019 There is no commandment greater than these.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 We must love each other.\u00a0 It is a commandment from God.\u00a0 If we say we love Him, is anything we feel, think or believe more important than a commandment from God?\u00a0 As Jesus asked Peter if he loved Jesus with a God-like love, or even a brotherly love, He told Peter that if he did love Him then He will do as Jesus said and love and care for the flock of Jesus (John 21:15-17<\/b>).\u00a0 Jesus never gave a provision to stop loving.\u00a0 If we belong to God we will always love Him and others.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t love then we don\u2019t belong to God (1 John 4:8<\/b>). To have received God\u2019s love means to possess His love in overflowing abundance and that means that the love we receive will flow from us to others.\u00a0 True love, that is a God-like love, never fails.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.\u00a026<\/a>[\u201cBut if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions<\/i>.\u201d We can clearly see that to not forgive is a sin. We also know that God forgives our sins through the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:9<\/b>).\u00a0 Is unforgiveness a sin that God does not forgive?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 What Jesus taught is not that any act is unforgivable.\u00a0 What He was teaching is that anyone who will not forgive does not have God\u2019s love within.\u00a0 Therefore, as\u00a01 John 4:8<\/b>\u00a0clearly state that if we don\u2019t have God\u2019s love within, we don\u2019t have God within.\u00a0 Family, if we don\u2019t forgive, we don\u2019t have love within, and if we don\u2019t have love within then we don\u2019t belong to God, and, we never did.\u00a0 It is the same message from\u00a0Matthew 25:31-45<\/b>\u00a0where Jesus was not saying that their sin was unforgivable but that they did not have God\u2019s love within and their actions proved that.\u00a0\u00a0 Unforgiveness, regardless of the offense, is a lack of God\u2019s love within.\u00a0 It is a lack of appreciation for one\u2019s own forgiveness.\u00a0 We should not deceive ourselves.\u00a0 Jesus gave us the parable of the Unmerciful Servant in\u00a0Matthew 18:21-35<\/b>\u00a0and if we won\u2019t forgive we are that Unmerciful Servant.\u00a0 Jesus said to those who were hearing Him \u201cThis is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart<\/i>.\u201d \u00a0Family and Friends, this Unmerciful Servant had been forgiven, his debt wiped clean.\u00a0 Then, when he would not forgive, his master took away mercy and grace and placed the full debt back on him.\u00a0 Forgiveness is not an option.\u00a0 It is not a work. \u00a0It is evidence of God\u2019s love within us.\u00a0 And, if we don\u2019t have that, well\u2026you know.<\/p>\n

Abundantly love each other.\u00a0 Always and completely forgive each other.\u00a0 Jesus said \u201cA new command\u00a0I give you: Love one another.\u00a0As I have loved you, so you must love one another.\u00a035\u00a0By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another<\/i>.\u201d (John 13:34-35<\/b>).\u00a0 Family, let us love one another as God loves us.\u00a0 Let\u2019s forgive each other, as we want to be forgiven and as God has forgiven us.\u00a0 It is not an option that Jesus gave, it was a command.\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 True love, that is a God-like love, never fails.\u00a0 His forgiveness never weakens or fails.\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 Yes, praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n

\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Corinthians 13:4a\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Love never fails. Mark 12:31\u00a0–\u00a0The second is this: \u2018Love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019 There is no commandment greater than these. Mark 11:25-26\u00a0–\u00a0Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.\u00a026[\u201cBut if you do not forgive, neither will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[129,100,93,101,94,17],"class_list":["post-1553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-corinthians","tag-john","tag-mark","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1554,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions\/1554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}