Love

We are making our way through a letter Paul wrote to Jesus followers in Corinth. Today, we continue with one of Paul’s most beautiful passages.


1 Corinthians 13
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless. 11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 13 Three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love.


Love. If you have ever attended a wedding, you have most likely heard this passage. I don’t say that negatively because the passage certainly fits; but it wasn’t Paul’s original intent. One of the most important rules of reading/studying God’s story is making sure you read/study God’s story in its original context (specifically the intended audience). Paul wrote this letter to a community of Jesus followers that had become severely divided over issues like who was the best/most important teacher (reread 1 Corinthians 1:10-13) and which was the best/most important spiritual gift (reread verses 1-3). Paul’s original intent for this passage was to remind them of Jesus’ commands (check out Mark 12:29-31 and John 13:34-35) and reverse the affects these divisions were having on the way they treated each another. I’m not suggesting couples should stop using this passage in their wedding ceremony. It is a great way to evaluate the way you “love” your spouse. All you have to do is reread the passage and insert your name wherever you find the word love or its pronoun and see if the statement is true. Here is an even better idea, we (as Jesus followers) should use it to evaluate how we “love” others. Seriously, take a minute and try it right now (reread verses 4-8 and see how you do). I think Paul would love it.