In The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard points out a crucial distinction which earnest believers need to be conscious of when reading Scripture. It's worth quoting him at length:
Love, Paul ... tells us, is patient, kind, free of jealousy and arrogance, is not rude or self-seeking, is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs, takes no joy in things that are wrong but instead in what is true. It always protects, always accepts, always hopes, and endures everything. And it never quits (1 Cor. 13:4-8).
People usually read this, and are taught to read it, as telling them to be patient, kind, free of jealousy, and so on - just as they read Jesus' Discourse [the Sermon on the Mount] as telling them to not call others fools, not look on a woman to lust, not swear, to go the second mile, and so forth.
But Paul is plainly saying - look at his words - that it is love that does these things, not us, and that what we are to do is to "pursue love" (1 Cor. 14:1).
Yes!
The Christian faith is not about praying for a "get-out-of-hell-free" card.
And it's not about cleaning up your act and flying straight. (And then judging others who aren't as righteous as you are.)
It is supposed to be about transformation.
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