Sinclair B. Ferguson

And then in John 15 verse 9 he says,

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Paul devotes a whole chapter in 1 Corinthians 13 to explaining why love is the greatest.

Or who can forget the apostle John saying that love is from God and whoever loves with that kind of love has been born of God and knows God.

But what is love?

Well, at the end of the day, it's not emotion so much as forgetting about ourselves and living for others, being like Jesus in that way, in our devotion and care.

And yes, if you want to go into detail, it's all the things Paul says it is in 1 Corinthians 13.

It's being patient and kind and

not envying or boasting, not being arrogant or rude.

It's being taken up with devotion to others.

And that's why it doesn't insist on its own way.

It's not irritable or resentful.

It doesn't rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and ensures all things.

None of these things is actually complicated, is it?

But the problem is, we are desperately complicated by our sin.

But when the Spirit begins to work in us, He uncomplicates us, begins to fill us with love for others and forgetfulness of self.

I can't help thinking about a comment that Peter the Venerable, the abbot of the great monastery of Cluny in the medieval days, once made about his much more famous friend, Bernard of Clairvaux.

Bernard, he said to him, you do all the difficult and complicated things well, but you're failing in the simple thing.

You don't love.

I must say, when I read these words first, they were like an arrow in my heart, doing the difficult things, but not doing the simple thing well.