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A Six Week Experiment
Yesterday, I started an experiment that will last for six weeks. This kind of experiment is suggested in the books that I am reading concerning Neuroscience and Scripture.
Every day for the next six weeks, I am going to read 1 Corinthians 13. On some days, I will read it several times. For the first week, I intend to consider the entire chapter. Weeks two through six, I will read the entire chapter, but my focus will be on verses 4-7. By doing this, my goal will be to understand the working definition of love, the way God views it.
My hope and intention are to document this experiment in order to notice differences in my reactions to others and in my relationship with the Father. I have the feeling that this will be enlightening and lead to other experiments. There may not be much to report in week one, but who knows?
Maybe you would be interested in trying the same experiment. If so, let’s talk about what we experience.
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It’s been a couple of weeks since I started this experiment. This morning, as I was reading 1 Cor. 13:5, I was especially drawn to ” it is not irritable or resentful” (English Standard Version). It seemed to me that other translations said this a little differently. Here are a few.
is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; (King James Version)
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. (New International Version)
is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; (American Standard Version)
is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. (Christian Standard Bible)
The first part of this “is not irritable/provoked” may be the hardest part of the entire chapter for me. Not being provoked to anger is easier than not being irritated. (At least most of the time.) It seems as I’m getting older, little things that wouldn’t have bothered me several years ago now drive me up the wall.
At first, I tried to just write it off to my patience not being very strong. But that argument didn’t get me very far because verse 4 says, “Love is patient, love is kind.” Then I remembered that Paul says in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (OH MY) I guess no matter how I look at it, that’s an area I really need to pay attention to.
The second part, “keeps no record of wrongs,” is that a written record? If so, I’m in good shape, but if it’s a mental record, not so much. This is something I’ve been working on, especially since I’ve been focused on this passage. Mental health and our relationships with God and others depend so much on forgiveness. Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
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I really like that exercise with scripture. Theres nothing God cant say with all that! We went thru the fruit of the spirit, one fruit a day, while working in Ukraine for 2 weeks. Each day was a new word to meditate on all day as we worked and it was a really neat experience.
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