What is Love? Part 2: Love is Patient and Kind

For most of my life, I had thought about patience as the ability to wait without complaining. Like when I’m driving behind an Amish buggy without an opportunity to pass. Or when I’m waiting for my four-year-old to complete his thought. Of course these situations can be a test of patience. But when Paul says “Love is patient,” he is getting at something a bit deeper.

It is easy to think of kindness as merely being nice to someone. Like letting the woman with only two items in her hands go in front of me with my full shopping cart. Or giving my son the last strip of bacon off of my own plate. (Can you believe I actually did that?) Sure, these are acts of kindness, but when Paul says “Love is kind,” he is taking it a bit further.

What Is Love? Part 1: A Still More Excellent Way

“What is love” is an age-old question with a timeless answer. The Bible thoroughly defines love, explaining everything from its origins, to what it looks like, to how can we receive it and give it. Paul says it is the greatest virtue because it is eternal. It could be said that the whole Bible is a big love story. Our culture so desperately needs a biblical understanding of love and those of us who are in Christ need to be able to give it to them. To that end, this study series will examine one of the most common passages in the Bible about love: 1 Corinthians 13.