matters more than mind...

The beginning of the poem on (God’s) Love as seen in Christ (1 Cor 13) shows us that even in the First Century the same propensity (to loveless language, enactments, mechanisms, and methods) needed to be guarded against. Now, no less!

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If I were to have eloquence in human languages

—even the language of angels—

but have no love, then I would only be an echoing gong or a clashing cymbal.

If I were to speak prophecies,

to know every secret mystery and

be completely knowledgeable, and

if I were able to have so much faith I could move mountains,

but have no love, then I am nothing.

If I were to donate everything I own to the poor, or

if I were to sacrifice myself to be burned as a martyr,

and have no love, then I gain nothing.

Love

is patient and kind.

Love is not jealous.

Love is not boastful.

Love is not proud.

Love does not act improperly,

or insist on having its own way.

Love is not argumentative

and doesn’t keep a record of wrongs.

Love takes no delight in evil but

celebrates the truth.

Love  never gives up,

keeps on trusting,

stays confident, and

remains patient whatever happens.  

Love never fails.

Prophecies will come to an end.

Tongues will become silent.

Knowledge will become useless.

For our knowledge and

our prophetic understanding

are incomplete.

But when completeness comes, then

what is incomplete disappears.

When I was a child,

I spoke like a child,

I thought like a child,

I reasoned like a child.

When I grew up

I left behind such child-like ways.

At the moment

we peer into a mirror’s riddling reflection,

but then

we shall see face to face.

For now

I know - only partially,

but then

I shall know, just as I am  known, and completely.

Trust, hope, and love last forever—

but the most important is

love.

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1 Corinthians 13: 1-13

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