1 Corinthians 13:4-10 KJV
(4) Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
(5) Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
(6) Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
(7) Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
(8) Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
(9) For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
(10) But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

A white bridal grown represents purity. Yet how many brides are really pure when they get married. How many still virgins on their wedding day. One of the most loving choices a woman and man can make for there life partner is to wait until marriage. It is a choice to be pure. To be innocent and to explore life together both in the bedroom and out. Yet it is only s symbol of love the white wedding gown, it only a covering for what deep inside the heart of a person. It is only the covering that says I am only yours to one’s future spouse. What that gown may cover up is impurity, evil, plotting, deceptive, greed, abusive nature, nagging and more. What it covers is the truth of the heart. One looks at the gown as symbol of purity, but in reality only girlfriends and perhaps the groom know fully what under that gown. Parents only hope they know. Yet close friends share more then they often should and mischief they gotten into in the past. The bridesmaids knowing the truth of the bride more so then the groom.

Yet in reality the groom will soon no more about his bride then he perhaps wants to know only to end in divorce because of those attitudes and habits. The attitude of the heart is often displayed to the world unless kept in check. Yet one expression of love is not something that should be hidden. Compassion, long suffering, gentleness and so forth should be what not kept covered by Christian. It something that should be in full view of those around you. Yet in truth those closes to us see all those attitudes that come forth from our human nature. Yet in the public eye only certain things are seen. Only certain things are exposed, until that breaking point where one speak one’s mind and you should of shut up. That attitude that got you fired because your patience with a customer got you angry to the point you said something you should not of. Yet of course it took more then once for it to be a problem, but general correction comments did not work.

As a Christian we need to put on the love of God. What is the love of God. The Love God is more compassion then humanly possible. It is loving through all those attitudes we have. See God see more then the wedding garment of faith he sees the deep root of the heart. He sees all those arteries that carry the blood to the heart and how one little block or clot can cause a problem. How anger, resentment, hate, revenge, and all kinds of thoughts can cause that heart muscles not to pump like it should. Everything filtering through that one muscle of the body to make things flow to the rest of the body. If you have a bad church leader the church group has the potential to be rotten as well, unless their faith is not based on their leader that has a problem. Neither can a good leader necessarily produce good people, that takes a hand of God.

One can not judge a book by its cover, but only see the outward signs of what they see one does outwardly. God’s love goes deeper then the outside appearance, it goes to the very core of the heart. It penetrates and enables us to demonstrate love in situations where in human instinct would be to lash out, to be hot with anger, and to be moved with compassion even when anger tries to rule.

Every human has their boiling point, but with God even those boiling points are normal. Yet God wants to transform us to love with compassion not to seek revenge, to show goodness and mercy. Is God asking us to do more then He does by not seeking revenge or being evil. Truth is God only shows judgment at a certain level of sin. Does that mean we safe until we reach a level, of course not. It means God’s mercy is there for those oops in life. God sees the inward of man, we can not, so our judgment is not just. Our judgment is not wise, our judgment lacks knowledge and any action of judgment is not an act of love. God’s judgment is love. It is mercy on those that need not evil people in their lives, or the torment of those that frustrate others in a way that does not please neither God or others.

God’s judgment comes with a price, of the mercy of God on evil people no longer being available, unless they cry out in repentance. My sister in me played a game called mercy or uncle. Depending on where you live I guess what it really called. But the game was played that you would test each other endurance or strength by tickling one to death until one cried uncle, or mercy. Of course there were those headlocks and wrestling moves that did the same type of thing entrapping a person until they either cried for mercy or uncle, because they neither could move or get away from any pain. God’s judgment comes unless one calls out uncle or mercy so to speak. If enough voice scream mercy, and repentance comes God is merciful. Time of Nineveh the people called out for mercy and judgment never came. Yet I do not doubt mercy was cried out at the time of Noah, but no mercy came, because judgment was upon the face of the earth and to late for mercy, because no one would listen before the judgment began.

God’s mercy has a condition of before and not during always. God can deliver in the middle of judgment but beware if it is like the days of noah and wrath of God comes with no mercy, because of the love for his people. His love was to take evil away from his people. Yet Noah still sinned by getting drunk and his son did not cover up Noah nakedness. Yet God’s mercy and grace demonstrates that the story of Noah did not stop sin. It only protected a man of faith who still failed at times.

Our mercy and grace we demonstrate through our faith, is not without error. If we think that the strive to have the mercy of God in our life to the point we demonstrate it all the time, then think again. Our strive is to pray with those hard days hit, and pray when dealing with that person we like to strangle. It is Lord help me hide my feels of impurity and anger. Help me to be long suffering and demonstrate peace with all people. Paul guidelines to the Corinthian church was to teach about the need to love besides just preach love. To strive ot be more like Christ in our actions. To be more less judgmental, but have compassion. Charity in Corinthians means love. Can you strive on your own to show charity? Of course you can, but what will not happen is a change in the person you are dealing with. God has the ability to take that love of His you show to infiltrate the heart of the other person. What occurs two people change as they work together.

Dear Heavenly Father take your love you put inside my heart and enable me to demonstrate your love so others will grab hold of your love they see in me. In Jesus precious name, Amen.