One of the things again that Christ is teaching about loving others like Him, and He defined love through His words, and action. Christ' love is unconditional, and our love should be like that. That's why instructions on how to love others with word, and action like Him is in His word for us to do when we are in relationship with others. The way were suppose love in words, or in communication is found James 1:19. The way we are suppose to love in action is found 1 Corinthians 13.
Love in Communication, James 1:19 ( KJV)
In James 1:19 James writes to church in Jerusalem stating "Wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. Swift to hear means that we need to listen, and there are 4 ways for that. They are observation with eyes, and ears. When people speak we need to listen with our eyes as well as with our ears. Next way we are suppose to listen is to concentrate to think about a person is saying to us, and third one is to be considerate. That is to understand to what their words are meaning, and fourth one is clarification into think through in what they are saying( Adrian Roger's sermon of "Dealing with Conflict). Slow to speak, and slow to wrath are related in our actions. God's love needs to be in our hearts to have the right actions in love the same way Christ did.
Love in Action, 1 Corinthians 13 (KJV)
Love in communication, and love in action like Christ are the power of all ministries. Paul opens verse 1 stating that without love that your ministry of speaking tongues will be nothing, but a loud sounding brass. In verse 2 he goes onto state that if you the gift of prophecy, and faith without love, than you are nothing. Christ's unconditional love is the reason why He humble himself by becoming man that was born in a filthy manager to be the sacrificial lamb that was to die for our sins, and God loved us unconditionally to send His Son to the cross while we were still sinners. So God's unconditional love towards us is how we are to love Him, and one another. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul tells what God's love by describing its characteristics.
Love's characteristics are-
Love suffers long
Love is kind
Love does not envy, vaunt itself, nor does it puff itself up
Love does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoke, and does not think evil
Love endure all things, bears all things, believes all things, and has hope in all things
LOVE NEVER FAILS
To abide in God's love is greater than abiding in faith, and hope. Our love for God is what drives our worship, and we will be doing that in His eternal kingdom. In there we will not need our spiritual gifts, so we will not be having them.
The characteristics of love should be the action of our love, and we should continue to learn how to communicate it with others that we love.
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