1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Matthew 22:37-40
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' All of Moses' Teachings and the Prophets depend on these two commandments."
It is good to see those passages side by side (not to mention in plain english as well . . .). The connection between them is too often lost. So simple a link as this is thrown aside: the latter commands what the former defines. If the connection is made at all, the definition is usually only paired with the second of the two commands without being applied to the first command. There is no distinction between the two loves. Try going through each of the characteristics of love given in 1 Corinthians 13 and applying it to your relationship with God. That is an exercise that would benefit us all.
verses taken from the GOD'S WORD translation of the Bible.
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2 comments:
"It does not insist on its own way"
that part, amongst others, gets me every time. just the thought of ordering my life in such a way that i do not focus on my own desires almost seems beyond belief.
good post.
i added more to this post.
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