From the pen of Dr. Sam Jones

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“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never fails...” (I Cor. 13:4-8).

The above passage defines what it means to love one another. The focus of this Spiritual Moment and for the remainder of this week is to briefly look at one of the features of love in action in the Bible each day. Paul starts his description of love by stating “love suffers long.”

In Luke 15:11-32, Luke describes, in my opinion, one of the most uplifting parables in the Bible. It’s about a father with two sons. One, the youngest, rebels against the wishes of his father. The father, being a loving father, gives a portion of his wealth to this son; although he is under no obligation to do so. The son emotionally hurts his father by the way he departs. Months, perhaps years later, the son comes home and when the father sees him coming, then we see an excellent example of love. The father doesn’t rebuke his son, but runs to him, embraces him, and kisses him. The father, for the period of time the son was gone, had been demonstrating love by being patient with him; he had given him a period of time to “come to himself” or to mature. When you love someone, it causes you or it motivates you to be patient or longsuffering with him or her.

The challenge for today is be patient with one another. Aren’t you glad that our heavenly Father has been and is longsuffering and patient with us? He is this way because God is love (patient) and because we belong to God – we love one another by displaying in all our encounters with others patience or longsuffering. Remember love is kind!