Loving

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.

- 1 Corinthians 13:1-8

Paul exhorts the Corinthian Christians to let love be their guiding principle. Love is Paul’s positive antidote to factionalism and the way of life for an ambassador of Christ. If we, who represent Christ, fail to show his love, we become useless for his purposes and we break unity with one another.

The essence of true Christianity is self-sacrificial love, not gifts, knowledge, and miraculous powers. Ultimately love, not freedom or knowledge, is the key to understanding faith and to guiding behavior. For New Testament writers, love is a matter of behavior not feeling. It is other-directed action, which is Christian “agape.” “Agape” is a Greek word used to describe God’s love, not ordinary human love. One bears this love through the Spirit. This love differs from “philia,” which is brotherly love, and “eros,” which is desiring love. If one has Christian love, one’s faith, hope, and endurance keep on going.

Consider where you show this kind of love in your life and where you do not. Why is it easier in certain situations and why is it harder to show this love? Reflect on how you can bear this love in situations where you are not.

Prayer

O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.