Are you just faking it?

[Chuck7]

You know I was talking with my wife this morning..We were discussing the 1 Cor. 13 kind of love.She said something that woul dreally preach IF you think about it. She said, "If your notwalking in God's love ..then your just faking it." I told her..."Honey, that will preach."

[Red Lion]

I can't argue with that, but reminds me of something that I used to tell the little gang-bangers and other criminals I used to work with. "Sometimes fakin it to make it" can actually lead to genuine change.

[Chuck7]

I have to agree with ya...Folks are not going to give up their Christianity but ....

fakin it doesn't bear no fruit..and no one is fooled.

the real deal...brings life to the individual Christian and those hearing him

[m.t.hands]

great passage chuck

[Chuck7]

Amen Keith...I love love.

[Ought_Six]

Nothing can seperate us from the love of God.

[Leafrivermac]

This is a question that I think everyone should be asking themselves rather than asking others. John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Maybe I'm jaded, or maybe it's because I'm my own worst critic, but when I approach God in spirit and in truth, I can't honesty claim that anything about me is where it should be.
I firmly believe that as a whole even the seemingly best of us are not exactly as we portray. There's the person that other's see us as, the person we see ourselves to be, and then there's the way that the Lord knows we are, what and who we are.
I've been reading a new version of the Bible lately . . .just because it turned up here somehow. It's called The Message. I'm still a KJV user almost exclusivley but some parts of this highly biased version I like. Here is 1 Corinthians 13 from The Message.

1Co 13:1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
1Co 13:2 If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing.
1Co 13:3 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
1Co 13:4 Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head,
1Co 13:5 Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
1Co 13:6 Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
1Co 13:7 Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.
1Co 13:8 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit.
1Co 13:9 We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete.
1Co 13:10 But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
1Co 13:11 When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
1Co 13:12 We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
1Co 13:13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

[Leafrivermac]

This chapter is speaking of doing wonderful things for the wrong reasons. It's hard to fathom but we can take selfish pride in our God-given abilities. But then again if you would want to be a prophet . . .why would you want to be a prophet? As far as being eloquent of speech . . .why would you want to have that gift? Why would you want to understand all mysteries?
I think this chapter asks us to take more than a casual glance at our motives for what we do. When 1Cor 13:3 says that we can give all that we own away to feed the poor . . .give our very life to be burned at a stake . . .for all the wrong reasons???? How can a man give everything away including his life and not believe in his own mind that he is doing a selfless thing out of love? It just goes to show that we can fool even ourselves with our motives.
I honestly believe we would could see a more powerful move of God today if God could find a truley selfless man. Someone that is dead to wanting recognition for what he does. Seems that folk nowadays don't fast or pray or even witness to others without advertising it to the world.
God wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Only by being absolutley truthful about ourselves before God can we ever hope to attain the kind of selfless agape love that this chapter speaks of. We may think we've arrived if we are willing to give away all we own and martyr ourselves but the Word says "not necessarily". . . .Shoot, how many of us are willing to do that for any reason?
I think the overall context of this chapter is one of self examination. . . .one of why do we do and say the things we do and say? Do we want to glorify God, or do we want to glorify ourselves a little bit? It seems that the Lord is very sensitive to our motives.
Mat 6:3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
Mat 6:4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly

[Venator1]

Nicely said.

[mudhead1s wife]

More great posts. I know not all agree but this part of the forum is a treasure.