| 1 Corinthians 13 New Living Translation |
Love Is the Greatest1If 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. 2If 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. 3If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;a but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Most people who have been to a wedding in the last two decades (at least!) would have heard or encountered this passage of the bible before. Even though at this point, I fear it to seem too cliché to be the basis of a conversation about love, I still find it highly relevant. A little over a year ago, I decided that I would go on a pilgrimage to love. When you get to know me a little better you will understand that yes, I do say things like this, seriously.
Last entry, I talked about love from a psychological perspective, in particular from the developmental and emotionally focused angle, where the person's actions in a love situation will be subject to their life's experiences and decisions about what love from others is, what they can or will expect, and what they deserve from other people. I described Love as a defined state (the Love noun) and as something that was experienced and in fact, done (the Love verb). Now I want to think about another framework for love.
So, a year ago I began this pilgrimage to learn love, and what I basically did was pick apart this piece of scripture to a.) fully understand it (hopefully), and b.) see if I could live my life inside of this definition. My question to you is this: Do you think this is a realistic description of love? I see this passage as not only a description of love (the Love noun), but also as the action of love (the Love verb) - how a person walking in biblical love might act.
To paraphrase verses one through three, it suggests that if I can do amazing things and boast about how good I am, but do not love, then I have nothing. It is suggesting that to experience love well is to gain something you didn't have. I like this, because it supports an idea I had and started to relate in the last entry. I said that I think love sometimes occurs spontaneously. I think the Love noun in some cases simply happens. I also think it can be demonstrated in action when it is not spontaneous. What I mean by this is that a person may choose to depict the Love verb without necessarily having the Love noun. Do you think that all of these aspects of love are present in every episode of the Love verb?
Last entry, I talked about love from a psychological perspective, in particular from the developmental and emotionally focused angle, where the person's actions in a love situation will be subject to their life's experiences and decisions about what love from others is, what they can or will expect, and what they deserve from other people. I described Love as a defined state (the Love noun) and as something that was experienced and in fact, done (the Love verb). Now I want to think about another framework for love.
So, a year ago I began this pilgrimage to learn love, and what I basically did was pick apart this piece of scripture to a.) fully understand it (hopefully), and b.) see if I could live my life inside of this definition. My question to you is this: Do you think this is a realistic description of love? I see this passage as not only a description of love (the Love noun), but also as the action of love (the Love verb) - how a person walking in biblical love might act.
To paraphrase verses one through three, it suggests that if I can do amazing things and boast about how good I am, but do not love, then I have nothing. It is suggesting that to experience love well is to gain something you didn't have. I like this, because it supports an idea I had and started to relate in the last entry. I said that I think love sometimes occurs spontaneously. I think the Love noun in some cases simply happens. I also think it can be demonstrated in action when it is not spontaneous. What I mean by this is that a person may choose to depict the Love verb without necessarily having the Love noun. Do you think that all of these aspects of love are present in every episode of the Love verb?
4Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Some of those seem easy enough to swallow - love is kind? Sure. Love is patient? Okay. Then, Love is not jealous, boastful, proud or rude? Love is not jealous? Love is the absence of boasting? The absence of pride and rudeness? Love does not keep a record of wrongs? So, this means it forgets that it was wronged? It never uses past wrongs as ammunition? It, Love, perseveres, hopes endlessly and has faith and endurance through every circumstance?
When I first began to study love, it was because I was having a new experience of it, and I wanted to understand. A part of my curiosity had to do with the fact that I had seen myself more clearly in my new love experience, and I saw aspects of myself that I thought needed "work". I wondered if love was something that you experienced, or something that you did. When I explored these verses I quickly felt them challenge me to attempt to live in this Love.
What I came up with was that God is the only flawless example of Love in that description, but perhaps my theology is this - God is love, and I, a follower of Him seek to walk in His love. I can bask in His flawless presentation of love, and I can labour on in my goal to live the Love verb.
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