Not Quite Perfect Yet — But Pressing On! Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Not Quite Perfect Yet — But Pressing On! ----------------------------------- Date: 8/13/2000 Keywords: "failure" "love" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Today, we conclude our exploration of the importance of love as we move through 1 Corinthians 13. Passage: 1 Corinthians 13:1-8a* 1. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2. And if I have {the gift of} prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3. And if I give all my possessions to feed {the poor,} and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 4. Love is patient, love is kind, {and} is not jealous; love does not brag {and} is not arrogant, 5. does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong {suffered,} 6. does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7. bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8. Love never fails; Questions 1. After reading the list of characteristics of love found in verses 4-8 (above), do you feel motivated, discouraged, instructed, guilty?   2. Have you ever known anyone who perfectly loved as these verses describe?   Practical help Anyone reading through 1 Corinthians 13 will become discouraged if they believe that they should be loving perfectly right now! The truth is that there is only one Person who has ever lived who loved perfectly, and that is the Lord Jesus. When you aim at becoming perfect in love you are aiming at becoming like Jesus Himself. Folks shouldn't be discouraged that they are not yet exactly like Jesus. We all have far to go. Nevertheless, these verses are very helpful in enabling us to see where we need to grow and change. If you have identified a porn habit as a factor in your personal struggle to love others better, then you can allow verse 8 ("love never fails") to do its convicting work in your heart. You failed by viewing porn. That means that you didn't love perfectly. It doesn't mean that you are a hopeless case, only that you failed. The end of verse 7 says that love endures all things — including your tendency to fail at love! Take heart. God loves you and forgave your sins because of your trust in Jesus. (If you have never experienced the forgiveness God has to offer you through faith in Christ, click here. He loves you even as you struggle with porn! In the midst of your struggle, turn to Him in trust and ask Him to make you a man or woman who loves as Jesus does. That is a prayer He loves to answer! eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2000 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."