3.15-What is love?

 3.15

Kevin Cook tells a story that needs to be told and retold.

“At an informal gathering of mostly strangers, Clifford, a 30ish young man, was surprised to see, Mr. Sanders, an older version of his grade school teacher. He was standing alone, drinking a cup of coffee, just a few feet away.”

“Clifford walked up and blurted out, ‘You remember me?’”

Smiles all around, but a blank stare, “I’m Clifford, I was one of your students, years ago.”

After a bit, the old man asked, “‘What do you do, now?’”

“Clifford responded, ‘Well, I became a teacher. Just like you.’ And he continued, ‘I became a teacher because of you.’”

“‘What did I do to inspire you to be a teacher?’”

“I’ll tell you the exact day. A friend of mine, also a student, came in with a nice new pocket watch, and I decided I wanted it.’”

“‘So I snuck it out of his pocket. I stole it.’”

“‘Shortly after, my friend noticed that his watch was missing and immediately complained to you.’”

“‘You announced to the class, ‘This student's watch was stolen during class today. Whoever stole it, please return it.’”

“Clifford injected, ‘I didn't give it back because I didn't want to.’”

“‘You closed the door and told us all to stand up and form a circle. You were going to search our pockets one by one until the watch was found. However, you told us to close our eyes, because you would only look for his watch if we all had our eyes closed.’”

“‘We all obeyed.’”

“‘When you went through my pocket, you found the watch and took it. You kept searching everyone's pockets, and when you were done you said ‘Open your eyes. We have the watch.’”

“‘You never said who stole it...That day you saved my dignity forever. It was the most shameful day of my life.’”

“‘But, that was the day I decided not to become a thief, You never said anything, nor did you even scold me, or take me aside to give me a moral lesson. I got the message anyway. Thanks to you, I understood what a real educator is like, and I wanted to be like that.’”

“‘Do you remember that day, Mr. Sanders?’”

“The old man answered, ‘Yes, I remember the situation with the stolen watch, when I was looking for it, I didn't call you out because I also closed my eyes while searching.’”

“If, too correct, you must humiliate; you don't know how to teach.”

Thank you Abba for Kevin’s story.

1 Corinthians 13.

13 If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions to charity, and if I surrender my body so that I may [a]glory, but do not have love, it does me no good.

4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. 5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, 6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it [b]keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of [c]prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 9 For we know in part and prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I [d]became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror [e]dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the [f]greatest of these is love.