Mephibosheth

Let me ask you a question. How do you know when somebody really loves you? Is it by what they say? No. It is by what they do. 1 Corinthians has one of the best descriptions of love in all of literature. It is a beautiful painting of what love looks like. You remember the passage. It's almost a law that it has to be read in a wedding ceremony, right?

1 Corinthians 13:4 starts out by saying, "Love is patient. Love is kind." And then it continues on but let's stop right there. That word "kind" is an interesting word. The original Greek word is "chresteuomai" and I can't pronounce it but it means to treat as one's kin or one's own family.

I read something the other day that was written by a mother who said something along these lines. She said if your kid comes over to our house to play with my kid, I will treat him just like I treat my own child. If we get something to eat, I will pay for it and it will be about the same as my kid eats. If we go somewhere, I will watch over your kid just like I watch over my kid. And if he acts up, he will be disciplined just like I discipline my own. And when he falls and hurts himself, I will kiss the booboo and he will be bandaged and hugged just like he was my own.

Now, some of you are thinking, "What's that lady's phone number? I want to send my kids over there." Right? Shoot, I want to go over there myself! Sounds like a pretty good time. But that is the picture of the word "kind." And that is part of what love looks like. Love is kind.

Now, most of you have been to other churches before. And I'm pretty sure every other church on the planet says that they are a loving church. They say they are a kind church. And most of them are...to each other. They are kind to the other church members that they have grown up with and grown old with. But the true test of being loving and kind is when you can be loving and kind to a stranger; to someone who can't repay you; to someone who hasn't done anything to deserve your loving kindness and maybe somebody that other people don't love. When you can show loving kindness to that person, then you can say you love.

Grab your Bibles and DON'T turn to 1 Corinthians just yet. We are going to be there in a couple of weeks and we are going to camp out there for so long your Bibles will start to open there automatically after a while. But today I would ask you to turn to the Old Testament book of 2 Samuel. I bet you can guess which book is on the left side of 2 Samuel and the book on the right side is 1 Kings.

2 Samuel is one of my favorite Old Testament books. It has some great stories like the one we are going to see in chapter 9. 1 and 2 Samuel have some of my favorite stories because they tell the story of one of my favorite characters, David. David, while a man after God's own heart, (1 Sam. 13:14) was far from perfect and these books tell the whole beautiful and ugly story of the greatest king Israel ever had.

By the time we get to 2 Samuel chapter 9, David has reigned on the throne of Israel for many years. He has won most of his battles and killed lots of men and he has lots of people who call him king. In chapter 8 it says that the Lord gave David victory wherever he went. God had blessed David and protected him from men who wanted to kill him and nobody wanted to kill him more than the previous king, King Saul.

Saul was the first King of Israel and he started out pretty good, but David came along and killed Goliath and was immediately a threat to Saul. At first, Saul invited David to eat at his table and basically be part of his family but it didn't take long before Saul was trying to pin Dave to the wall with his javelin. That should be a red flag right there that something is awry in the relationship. It's starting to get a little rocky when the big guy tries to hang you on the wall like a poster.

But Saul has a son named Jonathan and Jonathan and David are best buds. They love each other like brothers from day one and Jonathan finally figures it all out that David, not him, is going to be king some day and so Jonathan asks David to promise that when that day comes, David will not kill him or his family. And David happily makes that promise. In 1 Samuel 20, Jonathan says, "Show me unfailing kindness like the Lord's kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, 15 and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family--not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth."