Rethinking Love

Dear Christian,

I’m going to start a series of blog posts around 1st Corinthians 13. Most of us probably know this chapter as the one that is read in weddings. But I want to challenge us to look at this chapter outside of the lens of romantic relationships. 

If I speak in the tongues Or languages of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹²For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13, NIV

Jesus tells us over and over how important love is to Christians and to fulfilling what He has commanded us to do. If love is the root of our relationship with Jesus, then it’s important for us to truly figure out what that means in all contexts of our life. 

I look forward to exploring this with you further in the coming days/weeks. Until then, tell someone that you love them. They probably need to hear it.

Love,
Ashley