“Devotion to God is the ultimate motivation for Christian character, but it is also true that love for other believers is the more proximate motivation for the exercise of Christian graces among one another.
If we rephrased the virtues of love in 1 Corinthians 13 in terms of motivational statements, they might sound something like this:
- I am patient with you because I love you and want to forgive you.
- I am kind to you because I love you and want to help you.
- I do not envy your possessions or your gifts because I love you and want you to have the best.
- I do not boast about my attainments because I love you and want to hear about yours.
- I am not proud because I love you and want to esteem you before myself.
- I am not rude because I love you and care about your feelings.
- I am not self-seeking because I love you and want to meet your needs.
- I am not easily angered by you because I love you and want to overlook your offenses.
- I do not keep a record of your wrongs because I love you, and “love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).
Expressing love in this manner, as a motivational factor, helps us see what Paul had in mind when he said that love binds together all the virtues of Christian character. Love is not so much a character trait as the inner disposition of the soul that produces them all.
Bethune says love is ‘a holy, abiding and vigorous spirit, which rules the whole man, ever directing him to the humble and loving fulfillment of all his duties to God and man.’
But although love may be more a motivational force than an actual display of Christian virtue, it always results in action on our part.
Love inclines us and directs us to be kind, to forgive, to give of ourselves to one another. As Peter says to us, ‘Above all, love each other deeply’ (1 Peter 4:8).”
–Jerry Bridges, The Fruitful Life: The Overflow of God’s Love Through You (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2006), 48-49.
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