love

Depending on whose data we read, tomorrow is either the 2^nd most commercialized holiday (behind Christmas), or the 3^rd most (behind Christmas, then Halloween)...

Valentines Day

I must admit, these days there seems to be a lot more effort in the media world to influence us or guilt us into making overt (& expensive) expressions of our feelings to those who are important to us.

I thought it might be appropriate to quote a passage from the Bible that many seem to feel is the quintessential express about what love is, & what it is all about.

Paul wrote it long ago to the group of followers of Jesus in the town of Corinth.

It's always seems to me to be more than a little remarkable that Paul did this in just 13 verses.

It seems like it's longer than that.

It certainly packs a lot of punch for such few words.

Think about its words as we plunge into the many expressions of “I love you” that we will see tomorrow.

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 the time of perfection 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,

like puzzling reflections in a 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.