Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love is not arrogant…”  God is not arrogant.

He does not flaunt a superior disgust over our fallen human condition.  He is not pre-occupied with his own importance, value, relevance and influence in the universe.  He simply knows who He is and acts accordingly.  He is aware of His own superior holiness and therefore acts holy.  And then He gives us His spirit.  Not so that we can feel inferior, but so that we can share His holiness and be like Him. He knows that all of creation is dependent upon Him and therefore He does His part.  Rather than determining to constantly remind us of our complete dependency upon Him, He simply does what He should. By this all men are made aware that they depend on Him because humanity cannot do God’s part.  Likewise, this causes us to view our relationship with God as the meeting of our own deep need and not as a means by which we can continually be reminded that we do not measure up.  Therefore, we persuade others to be reconciled to God.  Not so that they can continually be reminded of their inadequacy, but so that their need for the cleansing of their conscience may be met through continual submission to God’s holiness.  We persuade others because we know who He is.  And now we know who we are because we see Him as He is.  And we know who they should be.  It is not arrogant to be certain of what is true.  But it is arrogant to believe that because we know the truth, we have reached a superiority that others should be dependent upon.