1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. NASB

I was driving yesterday and listening the The Threshold of a Dream by the Moody Blues. One lyric really stuck out at me and that line was “giving without measure”. I was taken back in remembrance of this description of how love acts. “Love is” is the standard of action in my life. Do I love like this? Then it struck me that the line “love is giving without measure” isn’t listed in 1 Corinthians 13.

Loving without measure isn’t scriptural and neither is it false doctrine. Verse 8 that follows here begins with the words “Love never fails.” That is a limitless expression. Giving without measure is a limitless expression. Now we see the danger of lists, they sound limiting, as if that is all there is to it. I dare say it is not and to include everything that love is could be rather long.

John 3:34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. NASB

There is your verse for giving without measure.

John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. NASB

Do we  meter the output or do we just let it flow? We are not in danger of running out of this water because it is after all given without measure.

So I would encourage you not to look at 1 Corinthians 13 as an all-inclusive list but rather as a quality control check to see if the water coming out flows from The Fountain. Ref. Rev. 7:17

1 Samuel 21:13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.

Of all the examples of change, I chose this one to lead off with for today’s devotional. The reason is because it first points to the choice of change behavior. The fact that it was feigned behavior is not so important as the issue that he had reason to change. The reasoning is at the heart of this devotional.

As a teen I was angry all the time. I had reason to change but I could not help myself. I did not know the source of my anger, nor could I find a way to get a grip on it, as much as I was afraid of it and wanted to change. So I raised my hand at an alter call, and my anger left me. How I do not know. Why I do not know. All I knew was it was gone. Nothing else about me changed. No one around me saw the change within me. I was the only one who knew. My outward behavior changed but only as to the anger. I was still a troubled teen but now without anger. Had I changed? I had no control over that anger, I could not even fake change.

Decades later, many sins later, many pains later, my father died and I repented of my life and everything I had done in it. God spoke to me in that moment and said, “Let’s start over.” I went home, found a bible and began reading every night. That was unusual behavior for me. It was observable but not disturbing to those around me. I made a conscious decision to change my behavior as to reading the Word. That was the only conscious decision I made.

Months of reading went bye and I found myself wanting to help people. My desires changed, I did not make a conscious decision to be compassionate. It was a new heart condition for which I did not have to make a conscious decision.

Ephesians 3:7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.

I didn’t fake it, I am a new creation.

I became a made man.