1 Corinthians 13:1-7
13:1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
13:3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
13:4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant
13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
13:6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
13:7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
On my wedding day, our pastor surprised me by beginning the ceremony by reading 1 Corinthians 13, which had not been included in the rehearsal the night before. Maybe the special occasion caused me to hear this text in a new way, for I remember coming away with new insight. I had always heard these words as overly sentimental and associated the word love with romance. I realized that nothing in the Corinthians passage suggests such an understanding. The Bible relates love to the self-giving behavior of God.
As a recent seminary graduate, I had studied faith extensively, especially its role in salvation and the Christian life. I had always thought faith was the premier power at work in the world. That day, though, I heard that the greatest of the three eternal attributes is love. What a wonderful way to begin a marriage! Without the wooing of God’s love, I would never have come to faith in the first place. Without the love of my future spouse, I would never dream of making a lifelong commitment. And certainly, my love for our daughter these past 25 years has caused me to behave in ways I would not previously have imagined. I’ve come to see that love is the key to Christian living because when we love, the image of God is strongest in us. The Author Earl T. Dickerson (Kentucky, USA)
The Upper Room blog
13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
13:3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
13:4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant
13:6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
13:7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
- 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NRSV)
As a recent seminary graduate, I had studied faith extensively, especially its role in salvation and the Christian life. I had always thought faith was the premier power at work in the world. That day, though, I heard that the greatest of the three eternal attributes is love. What a wonderful way to begin a marriage! Without the wooing of God’s love, I would never have come to faith in the first place. Without the love of my future spouse, I would never dream of making a lifelong commitment. And certainly, my love for our daughter these past 25 years has caused me to behave in ways I would not previously have imagined. I’ve come to see that love is the key to Christian living because when we love, the image of God is strongest in us. The Author Earl T. Dickerson (Kentucky, USA)
