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. 1 Corinthians 13:2
Loving Father,
In this season of many weddings,
we may often hear the passage on love
from 1 Corinthians 13.
As we do so,
may we hear and apply it in its proper context.
First of all, the apostle Paul was chastising the Corinthian Christians
for their overemphasis on spiritual gifts:
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love,
I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1).
If we have powers to prophesy
or power to do miracles
but have not love,
we are nothing.
If we give away everything,
even sacrificing our own bodies,
but have not love
then that is not love.
Indeed, as we read and listen carefully,
we realize that in and of ourselves,
none of us “has love.”
It is only in Jesus Christ,
whose love never fails
that we become
“not nothing,”
“something,”
“someone”
who loves,
not with manmade love,
and not even perfectly
(until the day Christ returns),
but often and well.
We love out of the righteousness
we have in Christ.
We love because you first loved us.
And we love as you loved us.
When we commit one of the failures of love,
being proud or boasting,
keeping a record of wrongs,
delighting in evil,
we are convicted by the Holy Spirit in us,
and we repent,
saying we’re sorry,
asking forgiveness,
and praying for the Holy Spirit’s help
that we might try to love again.
In Jesus’ perfectly-loving name. Amen.
Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.
Elizabeth Reynolds Turnage is the author of Preparing for Glory: Biblical Answers to 40 Questions on Living and Dying in Hope of Heaven.
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