So often many claim to have LOVE, but like every recipe, Love is made up of many ingredients. Do you have all the ingredients for the Greatest Recipe in Life?

I don’t know much about cooking, in fact, I’d say I’m not really good at it at all, even though I have attempted to be. But one thing I do know, is when you leave out ingredients from certain recipes, the end result is not the recipe you were trying to create. It doesn’t take a master chef to figure that out. I have see it first hand in my own efforts at cooking. Every ingredient makes up the whole, and each one is just as important than the other. No ingredient alone can complete the desired end result. Same goes with another recipe with many ingredients. The recipe of LOVE. In 1 Corinthians 13, we are told the key ingredients of Love and exactly what Love is made of. I have much to write about on the subject of Love, and willI do so in a later post, but for now I’m going to list Its ingredients below:

Patience (LOVE is patient – 1 Cor 13:4)

Kindness (LOVE is kind – 1 Cor 13:4)

Contentment (LOVE does not envy – 1 Cor 13:4)

Modesty (LOVE does not boast – 1 Cor 13:4)

Humility (LOVE is not proud – 1 Cor 13:4)

Politeness (LOVE is not rude/does not dishonor others – 1 Cor 13:5)

Thoughtfulness (LOVE is not self-seeking – 1 Cor 13:5)

Gentleness (LOVE is not easily angered – 1 Cor 13:5)

Graciousness or Forgiving (LOVE keeps no record of wrongs – 1 Cor 13:5)

Truthfulness/Joyfulness (LOVE does not delight in evil but rejoices in the Truth – 1 Cor 13:6)

Carefulness/Protectiveness (LOVE always protects – 1 Cor 13:7)

Hopefulness (LOVE always hopes – 1 Cor 13:7)

Perseverance or Endurance (LOVE always perseveres – 1 Cor 13:7)

Steadfastness/Faithfulness (LOVE never fails – 1 Cor 13:8)

So often in my own life, I have to take a step back and ask myself, “Am I using all the ingredients of Love in my walk with Christ, or only the ones that are convenient for me at the moment?” So often we might be patient with someone, but not show any kindness. An example would be, helping someone with something that is taking lots of your time, yet doing it with a bad attitude. Sometimes we might be modest, not say a word about ourselves in an area we might excel and no one around you would ever know, yet deep down being very prideful. So often we might be kind, but only kind because we want something from the other person, which is self-seeking. You get the picture. You can have some ingredients apart from the others, and in the end the result is not LOVE.

How can one even live with all these ingredients? I know that I have not stayed in LOVE my entire life, and occasional find myself baking a half mixed batter.

Ultimately I believe these verses are talking about the LOVE of Jesus Christ! He displayed every single one of these ingredients at all times, not once did He ever leave one out. Apart from Christ we will not display any of these I ingredients. If His Spirit is not doing the work in us, then there is no way we could ever do it by human will. When we Trust in Jesus Christ to change our hearts and continually Trust in Him to make us like Him, we will start to see a change in us, and LOVE will become a habit in our lives! God’s LOVE never fails!

I have learned that when you truly Love someone, you care for everything to do with the one you Love. Everything they loved, you love. In other words, the things of the one you love are the things you think about and long for. The same goes true for those who Love Jesus Christ. Those who truly Love Christ will care about the things of Christ, and want to think and do everything of Him. Search your heart today, how much do you Truly Love God? Ask Him to give you His Love!

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8