Love is Patient

This morning, I decided to start looking into "love". I opted to start in 1 Corinthians 13, the all-typical "love" passage. I figured it would be a quick detour, since it's so overused.

An hour later...

I apologize that this isn't the most organized bit. I'm regurgitating it as much for my own understanding as for anyone else.

First, I noted that gifts are useless without love, sacrifice without love is profitless, and gifts will fade (with perfection/completion) but love will not. Towards the end of the chapter, I saw the "faith, hope and love, greatest of these is love", so I looked into the words themselves.

Faith (pistis) - Miraculous faith, faith in Christ, originally pertaining to the gift or miracles.
Hope (Elpis) - Desire of good with the expectation of obtaining it/trust.
Love (Agape) - Translated charity. Emphasis not on what is wanted, but what is needed. Also not the love that is friendship based on common interests.

Love, I noticed, of the three, is the most "active", the one that really seems to require the most action.

Jumping back a bit, 1 Cor 13:3 says, "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."

This made me think a bit. If love has to do with charity, you would think that it's impossible to give everything away and not have love. But clearly, there is a distinction. Then I saw the footnote, that says that in older manuscripts "body to the flames" says "body, that I may boast". Oh, right! People all the time give stuff away, or sacrifice themselves with the intention of making themselves look good. So I think it's largely a heart issue here, don't make these sacrifices if you're only doing it to say "hey! look at what I did!" Tying it back to the definition with love giving what's needed, if you're giving and thinking of yourself and looking good, rather than what's needed, there's a fairly good chance you might not give them what they could really need. (Reminds me of a guild wars quest where you end up giving homeless people mirrors on the government's behalf. Because mirrors do poor people a whole lot of good, right?) Don't sacrifice so that you can boast, because that's not Godly love, and love cannot be self-seeking. (Reference, Matthew 6:2)

Love is Patient...
Patient (Makrothumeo) - Not hasty anger or punishment, specifically towards persons. (There is another word that covers other things)
Ok, sure, we just need to not get mad at people. Sure, sure. Yeah. I'll remember that next time I'm on the road. But wait. Cross references!

Proverbs 10:12 - ...love covers all transgressions.

Ok, cool. But, this is OT, it can't be Agape love, because that didn't exist until the NT. What is it ... Ahabah - feminine, means "love, or beloved", and is rather abstract. Interesting.

Proverbs 12:9 (paraphrased) - He who covers transgressions seeks love, but he who repeats offenses separates intimate friends.

There's that ahabah again.

Well, what's this got to do with patience? What's the deal with covering?
Cover (Kacah) - conceal, forgive.

Ohhhhh. It's not just being slow to get angry. Love is wrapping up the wrongs, hiding them, and getting rid of them. Love is forgiving when people do stupid stuff so that it won't keep affecting people later on.

Love is not getting angry, not taking it upon ourselves to punish wrongs, concealing and forgiving. Keeping in mind "what is needed" ... yeah, I'd say that's what people need.

Love is patient.