Your Name Here

3.28.2011

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 4 [Your name here] is patient, [Your name here] is kind. [Your name here] does not envy, [Your name here] does not boast, [Your name here] is not proud. 5 [Your name here] is not rude, [Your name here] is not self-seeking, [Your name here] is not easily angered, [Your name here] keeps no record of wrongs. 6 [Your name here] does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 [Your name here] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 [Your name here] never fails.

1 Corinthians 13 is the Psalm 1 of the New Testament. Haven’t read Psalm 1 lately – maybea good time to do so. The Scripture has a good system in place for us to check ourselves and see how we’re doing; the Love Chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, like Psalm 1 is part of that system.

Here is an exercise we can do: From verse 1 to 3 of 1 Corinthians 13, insert the Name Jesus for the word love.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not Jesus, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not Jesus, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not Jesus, I gain nothing.

You see, without Jesus, I can do nothing of any value; and if I can’t insert my name into verses 4 though 8 then I’m not getting it. The Scripture is to be having its effect upon my life, and the Bible gives me a place or two (or three or four) to check up on myself to see how I’m doing. Judge my life, how am I doing?

O Lord, you have searched me
and you know me.
 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O Lord.
(Psalm 139:1-4 NIV)