Pam's Perambulation

By Wingman Gerald Green (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

13 What if I could speak
all languages
of humans
and of angels?
If I did not love others,
I would be nothing more
than a noisy gong
or a clanging cymbal.
² What if I could prophesy
and understand all secrets
and all knowledge?
And what if I had faith
that moved mountains?
I would be nothing,
unless I loved others.
³ What if I gave away all
that I owned
and let myself
be burned alive?
I would gain nothing,
unless I loved others.
⁴ Love is kind and patient,
never jealous, boastful,
proud, or ⁵ rude.
Love isn’t selfish
or quick tempered.
It doesn’t keep a record
of wrongs that others do.
⁶ Love rejoices in the truth,
but not in evil.
⁷ Love is always supportive,
loyal, hopeful,
and trusting.
⁸ Love never fails!

Everyone who prophesies
will stop,
and unknown languages
will no longer
be spoken.
All that we know
will be forgotten.
⁹ We don’t know everything,
and our prophecies
are not complete.
¹⁰ But what is perfect
will someday appear,
and what isn’t perfect
will then disappear.

¹¹ When we were children,
we thought and reasoned
as children do.
But when we grew up,
we quit our childish ways.
¹² Now all we can see of God
is like a cloudy picture
in a mirror.
Later we will see him
face to face.
We don’t know everything,
but then we will,
just as God completely
understands us.
¹³ For now there are faith,
hope, and love.
But of these three,
the greatest is love.

This has to be one of the best know passages in the bible.  Read at many a wedding.

1 Corinthians has been working its way through the many and varied gifts we all have, and how each one has a vital part to play.

Now, having established that, we come to the reality that any of them are no use whatsoever if they do not have their basis in love.  Whether we can prophecy, work miracles, have huge faith, clean the church, visit the sick, clear the snow, or any other gift we exercise, it is as nothing if it is not done in and through love.

Love gives and gives on giving.  It doesn’t drum its fingers in impatience; stand around waiting for the ‘right’ response; do the right thing with the wrong attitude; wait for others to trip up to look better; keep a score card…

Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful,and trusting (v7)

How we all need some more of love like that – the kind of love that God offers.

Lord

I pray for love

– your kind of love,

to be in me.

That all I do

may be done for no more

and no less

than love

– your love