Love

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
1 Cor 13:4-7

I've been reading out of the letters to the Corinthians recently. I'm in 2 right now, but finished 1 a little while ago. As I was reading through, I came across this section. Naturally, I remembered hearing/seeing it before. As I went through, I underlined how I felt I was loving (selfish? prideful? I was just trying to see how I felt about myself). I only underlined parts of this section that I thought I was. Give it a try, see how you view yourself as loving.
I didn't underline half of it. Of the 14 parts of love, I considered myself six and a half of them. I doubt I'm much of any of them, but it's how I perceive myself. Maybe I am those half of the time, or some of the time, but never all the time.
In at least one of the parts, I found that perhaps that part of my love was in fact a weakness in me. Not that love is a weakness. Hmm, maybe it's more that because of that love, evil has an easier time taking advantage of it.
Love is the first fruit of the Spirit. How can it go wrong? The fall is not in love itself, but that we fail in love. How can we be at all deprived, at all failing, at all undeserving if we simply love? Mark 12:30 says "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Did not Jesus also say that the greatest commandments were this and to LOVE your neighbor as yourself?
[I'm no bible major (or minor), and I may have that wrong, but I am young still in my faith and am trying to be bold :). Correct me if I need it.]
Really, there is nothing new here. I am just reminding us all of our failures and just one way in which we do so. For lack of a better word or term- and after consulting my thesaurus- let us love until the cows come home. With love, we can not go wrong.

"And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
1 Cor 13:13

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity may one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah they'll know we are Christians by our love

We will work with each other, we will work side by side
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah, they'll know we are Christians by our love.

- Jars of Clay - They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love