Chapter
6
Tenants
of the Sixth Royal Law of Courtship
“By
the grace of Almighty God, I will give to my partner someone who
understands and practices real agape love.
The
Bible Definition of Love
There
is only one place in the Bible where love is defined. First John 4:8
says, “God is love.”
Learning
to Recognize Biblical Love
Using
a Bible concordance, look up every place in the Bible where the word
“love” (or some form of it) is used (there are over 550 places
where it is found). Look up each verse and write down it's meaning
in a notebook. If you do 5 verses each night before you go to bed,
you will have this project completed in less than 4 months &
you'll be able to tell the difference between true biblical love and
a cheap counterfeit.
Do
a Careful Study of the Love Chapter
1
Corinthians, chapter 13, has long been called “the love chapter.”
You might be shocked to find that the world love is not found in
this chapter. Instead, the Greek word agape
has been translated charity.
Agape is a Greek word
meaning “divine love” or “God-love.” It is the strongest,
truest and deepest of all forms of human affection. Let's look at
what this chapter teaches about love.
Verse
1:
“Though I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become
as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”
~ Love is more than
words.
Verse
2:
“And though I have
the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all
knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”
~ Love is more than
being spiritual.
Verse
3:
“And though I bestow
all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be
burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”
~ Love is more than
sacrifice.
Verse
4:
“Charity suffereth
long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself,
is not puffed up.”
~ Love is patient.
~ Love is kind.
~ Love does not envy.
~ Love does not promote
self.
~ Love is not prideful.
Verse
5:
“Doth not behave
itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,
thinketh no evil.”
~ Love does not behave
indecently or shamefully.
~ Love is not selfish
or self-centered.
~ Love does not have a
short fuse.
~ Love does not
premeditate to do wrong.
Verse
6:
“Rejoiceth not in
iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.”
~ Love gets excited
about the right things.
Verse
7:
“Beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
~ Love is strong; it
does not quit when things get hard.
~ Love is trusting; it
looks for the good instead of the bad.
~ Love is optimistic;
it trusts God for tomorrow.
~ Love is tough; it
endures instead of complains.
Verse
8:
“Charity never
faileth.”
~ Love commits!
Because of that, it does not fail.
A person can have a
velvet tongue, may seem to be filled with great Bible knowledge and
faith, and be constantly sacrificing and giving to others, but . . .
~ If they are not
patient and kind, they lack love.
~ If they are envious
of others, they lack love.
~ If they are full of
pride and constantly talking about self, they lack love.
~ If they behave
indecently or in a way that brings shame to the Lord, they lack love.
~ If they are selfish
and self-centered, they lack love.
~ If they are
quick-tempered, they lack love.
~ If they are always
trying to figure out how to get by with wrong, they lack love.
~ If they enjoy wrong
and seem bored with right, they lack love.
~ If they are quick to
quit, distrusting, pessimistic and constantly complaining, they lack
love.
