“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”  1 Corinthians 13:4 (NIV)

Here we are, the day before Valentine’s Day, writing about love.

So what does “not boasting” or “not being proud” have to do with love? Everything. Boasting and being proud demonstrate love of self, while Valentine’s Day celebrates romantic love for another. However, romantic love is not what this passage in 1 Corinthians is about. It is about agape love, which is “a love that loves without demanding or expecting repayment. It gives because it loves; it does not love in order to receive. It has much to do with self-denial for the sake of another. Agape love is a spiritual love that we cannot have unless we have the Holy Spirit. Agape love is the supreme fruit of the Holy Spirit. Agape love is the love that Jesus displayed toward each of us.”*

If we truly love others, then we are constantly putting them first rather than trying to exalt ourselves through boasting. If we truly love God, then like Paul, we only have one thing to boast about and that is the cross of Christ through which we have been saved (Galatians 6:14). If we truly love God, then we put away our idols of the heart, including pride in our own accomplishments, and instead give all the glory to Him.

This is what puts the “radical” in our core value of Radical Hospitality, or any radical demonstration of God’s love for that matter. Let’s go “all out” and be radical in our love, consciously exalting God, each other, and all those we serve.

In Christ,

Judy