Walking With Christ

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
(4)Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant (5)or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; (6)it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. (7)Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (8)Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.(ESV)

Lately, I’ve been hearing this set of verses used as a personal barometer for the Christian walk. Replacing “love” with our names in the first seven verses can show us where we fall short. This works great as a mental and spiritual checklist for how we are doing at any given moment, but I don’t think many people have stopped to ponder why this works so well.

We call ourselves Christians. The word “Christian” began as an insult toward followers of Christ because they were trying so hard to be like Him. It literally means “little Christ”. Since that was actually the point of following Christ, it wasn’t taken as an insult but rather as a compliment.

In John 14:9, Jesus says, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” So, by becoming more like Jesus, we become more like the Father. We also know that God the Father is the source of love. God is love.

This passage works as a barometer for our Christian walk because it describes the very nature of God.