1 Corinthians 13 — The Way of Love

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 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. 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. 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. This is First Corinthians chapter thirteen. The love chapter. Read at almost every wedding. Quoted on greeting cards. Cross-stitched on pillows. So familiar that we can stop hearing it. Tonight, let me hear it. Love is patient. Patient even when waiting hurts. Patient with the slow change in others. Patient with my own slow growth. Patient with God's timing. Love is kind. Kind in small ways. Kind in big ways. Kind when no one is looking. Kind when the other person does not deserve it. Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not seek its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Lord, hold me up to this list. The mirror does not flatter me. Love is not envious. I am envious sometimes. The colleague who got the promotion. The friend with the better marriage. The neighbor whose children seem to be doing better than mine. Love is not boastful or arrogant. I am, sometimes. I want credit. I want to be seen as smart, capable, accomplished. The pride lies underneath even my service. Love is not rude. I can be. The sharp word. The dismissive tone. The interrupted sentence. Love does not seek its own way. I do, often. My preferences. My comfort. My agenda. Love is not irritable or resentful. I get irritable. I hold resentments longer than I should. The list of grievances grows. Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing. There is a hidden satisfaction sometimes when an enemy stumbles. That is not love. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Lord, this is impossible love. Not human love. Divine love. The love that comes from You and through You and back to You. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. Love never ends. The only thing that survives. Faith and hope are wonderful, but they will be transformed in heaven, because we will see Him face to face. Love is what we already do in heaven. Love is what we will keep doing forever. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. Now we see in a mirror, dimly. Now I see Your love only in glimpses. Then I will see fully. The face of love itself. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. The greatest of these is love. Not because faith and hope are small. They are great too. But love is the greatest. Lord, fill me with this love tonight. Not the human imitation. The real thing. The love that bears all, believes all, hopes all, endures all. The love that comes only from You. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.