Loving Your 'One'

By: Cole Kedney

When you hear the word “love”, what do you think of? Maybe you think of your spouse and your deep affection for that person. Or you might think of an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend and the pain that came from that previous relationship. Maybe you think of what you hope to have in the future or you mourn what you had previously. Or you might think of a sibling, a parent, a place, a food like my favorite dessert from Applebee’s - the triple chocolate meltdown. Perhaps you even think of Jesus and His perfect love for us. Whatever you think of, the word love can be a trigger word that stirs up an abundant amount of emotions.

Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 13:3-8, also known as the love passage. The NIV version reads:

 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails…”

If you read this and you are like me, you may feel convicted. Convicted because you realize that you do not love as well as we ought to be after reading this passage. I know for myself that I need to grow in patience, forgetting other people’s wrongs, assuming the best in others, and so much more. I am not perfect at love.

However, we follow the one who is perfect at love, Jesus. We see in 1 John 4 and all throughout scripture that God is love. When we want to grow in loving God, others and ourselves, we need to look no further than Jesus Himself.

So, how do we do that? How do we love like Jesus? We can take bits and pieces of 1 Corinthians 13 and choose the areas that we need to grow in. We can pray for wisdom on how to love people better. We can seek out new ways to do more and to love better. We can do all these things, and while they are not bad things to do, there is something that we can do to live and love more like Jesus. That is focusing on our “one”.

Kyle Idleman writes all about this in his book “One at a Time”. He ponders over how Jesus, although some people believe in him and some people don’t, still was the most impactful person to ever live. After studying the gospels, he comes to realize that when Jesus was alive, He focused his time and attention on one person at a time.  

We see over and over in the Bible that when Jesus goes somewhere, he ends up focusing on one person at a time. Idleman writes “when someone stood in front of Jesus, time stopped. Everything else in his life – all his concerns, his agenda, his goals – blurred and disappeared. He was fully present.” (Idleman, 25). Jesus loved others and changed the world forever by simply being completely present with one person at a time.

As you go about your day, who is the one person you need to give your full undivided attention to? Is it your kids? Or your boss? Or the homeless person across the street? Or maybe it is even yourself and you need to spend time with just yourself and God. Whoever that is, be fully present with that person and allow God to speak in you and then to love through you. When we do this, we live out 1 Corinthians 13 and look more like Jesus.

We may never be perfect at loving other people, but we can always aim to love people better. Today, tomorrow, and forever – let’s continue to strive to love like Jesus by focusing on loving the one in front of us.

Cole Kedney is a Kindergarten-6th grade manager on our Kids Team at Shepherd Church.