09/07/2026
Here is something we can focus on this week as a church family…
WHAT BIBLICAL LOVE LOOKS LIKE IN REAL LIFE AND IN REAL TIME IN THE PLACES IT MATTERS THE MOST…
AT HOME • WITH YOUR SPOUSE • WITH YOUR CHILDREN • IN THE COMMUNITY • IN THE CHURCH
THE Biblical FOUNDATION…
1 Corinthians 13:4–8 …
Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love is not jealous or envious.
Love does not brag and is not proud.
Love is not rude or disrespectful.
Love does not demand its own way.
Love is not easily irritated or quick-tempered.
Love does not keep a running record of wrongs.
Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in truth.
Love protects.
Love believes the best it reasonably can.
Love continues to hope.
Love endures through difficult seasons.
Love never fails.
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WHAT DOES THAT LOVE LOOK LIKE IN REAL LIFE?
1. LOVE IS PATIENT
With your spouse:
Give them room to grow. Don’t expect perfection or demand that everything happen according to your timetable.
With your children:
Teach and correct them without constantly showing frustration while they are still learning.
In the community:
Be patient with people who think differently, move slower, or come from a different background.
In the church:
Remember that everyone is at a different place in their spiritual growth.
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2. LOVE IS KIND
With your spouse:
Speak to them with kindness, encouragement, and respect.
With your children:
Let correction still contain affection, encouragement, and affirmation.
In the community:
Look for simple ways to help people without needing recognition.
In the church:
Welcome people, notice people, encourage people, and make room for people.
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3. LOVE IS NOT JEALOUS
With your spouse:
Celebrate their strengths and accomplishments instead of competing with them.
With your children:
Celebrate the uniqueness of each child instead of constantly comparing them with others.
In the community:
Be thankful when someone else’s family, career, business, or life is doing well.
In the church:
Celebrate another person’s ministry, gift, influence, or success without feeling threatened.
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4. LOVE IS NOT PROUD
With your spouse:
Be willing to say, “I was wrong. I’m sorry.”
With your children:
Don’t be afraid to admit when you handled something incorrectly.
In the community:
Treat every person with dignity regardless of position, income, education, or status.
In the church:
Serve without needing a title, spotlight, platform, or applause.
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5. LOVE IS NOT RUDE OR DISRESPECTFUL
With your spouse:
Don’t use sarcasm, humiliation, yelling, or disrespect to make your point.
With your children:
Correct behavior without attacking their identity or tearing down their confidence.
In the community:
Disagree without becoming insulting or cruel.
In the church:
Speak about fellow believers in a way that honors Christ, even when there is disagreement.
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6. LOVE DOES NOT ALWAYS DEMAND ITS OWN WAY
With your spouse:
Marriage cannot flourish when everything must revolve around one person’s preferences.
With your children:
Sometimes loving them means doing what is best for them rather than what is easiest for us.
In the community:
Ask, “How can I contribute?” instead of always asking, “What am I getting?”
In the church:
Not every song, decision, ministry, schedule, or preference has to be exactly the way we would choose it.
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7. LOVE IS NOT EASILY ANGERED
With your spouse:
Not every disagreement deserves an argument.
With your children:
Respond to mistakes with wisdom rather than uncontrolled emotion.
In the community:
Don’t allow politics, social media, traffic, opinions, or inconveniences to constantly control your emotions.
In the church:
Give people grace before becoming offended.
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8. LOVE DOES NOT KEEP SCORE
With your spouse:
Don’t keep reaching into the past to win today’s disagreement.
With your children:
Don’t continually remind them of mistakes they have already corrected.
In the community:
Don’t allow one bad experience to permanently define another person.
In the church:
When something has truly been forgiven and resolved, don’t keep bringing it back up.
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9. LOVE REJOICES IN TRUTH
With your spouse:
Be honest, even when an honest conversation may be uncomfortable.
With your children:
Teach them truth even when truth is unpopular.
In the community:
Don’t spread rumors, half-truths, exaggerations, or information you have not verified.
In the church:
Our loyalty must ultimately be to truth, not personalities, traditions, factions, or popularity.
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10. LOVE PROTECTS
With your spouse:
Protect their dignity. Don’t publicly expose private weaknesses for laughs, sympathy, or attention.
With your children:
Create a home where they feel safe enough to talk honestly.
In the community:
Don’t participate in unnecessarily destroying someone’s reputation.
In the church:
When correction is necessary, seek restoration rather than humiliation.
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11. LOVE BELIEVES AND HOPES
With your spouse:
Believe that your marriage can continue growing and that both of you can continue changing for the better.
With your children:
Never let today’s struggle convince you that it determines their entire future.
In the community:
Believe people can learn, change, mature, and do better.
In the church:
See people not only for where they are today, but for what God’s grace can produce in their lives.
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12. LOVE ENDURES
With your spouse:
Love remains committed when marriage moves through difficult seasons.
With your children:
Keep loving, praying, teaching, and being present through every stage of their lives.
In the community:
Continue doing good even when kindness is not immediately returned.
In the church:
Stay faithful to loving people even when people occasionally disappoint you.
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THE SIMPLE TEST OF LOVE
At home.
In our marriages.
With our children.
In our community.
And in our church.
We can simply ask:
Am I being patient?
Am I being kind?
Am I showing humility and respect?
Am I forgiving?
Am I truthful?
Am I protecting rather than embarrassing?
Am I believing the best rather than assuming the worst?
Am I seeking someone else’s good or simply demanding my own way?
Am I still loving when loving becomes difficult?
Because Scripture tells us:
God is love.
And of faith, hope, and love…
the greatest of these is love.
