If I speak in the tongues of humans 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.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. L
Love never ends. But 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.
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 only a reflection, as in a mirror, 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.
And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love. [1 Corinthians 13:1-13]
In many ways, Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth was a love letter. It was written to people he loved about important matters. It was meant to comfort and encourage, with love. It was meant to teach them how to be the the Church, with love. And, it was meant to teach them about love, that brand of love we should know and be known for.
Most importantly, it wasn't about how we will love in heaven. It's about how we can and ought to love now. It's about practical, everyday, this-is-how-we-should-live-with-each-other love.
So as we continue our journey together through 2025, let us love one another!
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The Greatest of These Is Love
I have put words into your mouth
I have put love into your heart
When faced with rage
rage not
When faced with impatience
patient be
When faced with destruction
build
When faced with wrongdoing
bear all things
When faced with a challenge
make no excuses
Envy not
Boast not
Resent not
Love
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