"does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;"
1 Corinthians 13:5 (NKJV)
While I do not know for certain if people still say this or not, there used to be an expression where people would say something like, "I'm looking out for number one". The basic idea was that you had to pay attention to what was important to you, because no one else will. Although there is some truth in that statement, and we do need to pay attention to what is going on in our own life, we don't want to be so self-centered that all we do is pay attention to what we need and ignore everyone else.
It is natural for us to be more interested in what is important to us than what is important to someone else, but is that always the way it should be? We can be so concerned about what we want that we never notice the needs of other people or the things they are dealing with. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:5, that love "... does not seek its own ..." Well, if love is not seeking something for itself, what is love looking for? The answer is that love looks to meet the needs of others.
The question is, will we be like Jesus and be moved with compassion to help those around us and do what we can to meet their needs, or will we be self-centered and selfish people who believe that our main focus in life should be on ourselves and what we want? Love does not seek its own, but love seeks to meet the needs of others, and that is a goal for all of us. If we are going to walk in love, we need to stop being overly focused on looking out for number one, and start looking out for number two, for other people.
1 Corinthians 13:5 (NKJV)
While I do not know for certain if people still say this or not, there used to be an expression where people would say something like, "I'm looking out for number one". The basic idea was that you had to pay attention to what was important to you, because no one else will. Although there is some truth in that statement, and we do need to pay attention to what is going on in our own life, we don't want to be so self-centered that all we do is pay attention to what we need and ignore everyone else.
It is natural for us to be more interested in what is important to us than what is important to someone else, but is that always the way it should be? We can be so concerned about what we want that we never notice the needs of other people or the things they are dealing with. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:5, that love "... does not seek its own ..." Well, if love is not seeking something for itself, what is love looking for? The answer is that love looks to meet the needs of others.
The question is, will we be like Jesus and be moved with compassion to help those around us and do what we can to meet their needs, or will we be self-centered and selfish people who believe that our main focus in life should be on ourselves and what we want? Love does not seek its own, but love seeks to meet the needs of others, and that is a goal for all of us. If we are going to walk in love, we need to stop being overly focused on looking out for number one, and start looking out for number two, for other people.
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