“I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved” (2 Corinthians 12:15). Paul, the former Pharisee who hated Christians so much that he put them to death, now loved them with Christ’s love. He was willing to spend and be spent for them even though they did not reciprocate his love. Again, we see the heart of a true godly pastor and parent. It often happens that those we love and help the most, love us the less and even turn against us and do evil against us, but Paul did not let fallen human nature cause him to stop loving and serving. His eyes were upon Christ; he was serving Christ; so he was not offended by man’s sin and did not stop serving Christ because of man’s sin. The Expositor’s Bible comments, “Nature says, ‘Stand upon your rights; vindicate your position; insist on having all that you conceive to be your due’; but love says, ‘Spend and be spent, and spare not till all is gone; life itself is not too much to give that love may triumph over wrong.’”
(Friday Church News Notes, November 12, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)