Perfect Love
Published by Jenny January 28th, 2007 in Day to Day1 Corinthians 13:1-13 is one of the most famous and one of my personal favorite scripture passages. JR and I chose it for one of the readings at our wedding and it has always been special to me. It was today’s second reading and because I love it so, I wanted to share it with our dear readers.
"If I speak in angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
What a beautiful description of perfect love - who would not want to be loved in such a way? How comforting to know that each of is loved perfectly by our Creator. Reflecting on this, it is humbling to review our own lives and acknowledge the failure to exhibit this perfect love. It is easy to state the obvious, that we are imperfect beings who will never be capable of perfection, but how different would or world be if we were all trying a little harder to love perfectly and if we shared that (not quite) perfect love indiscriminately? I believe this is one of those cases where a little could go a long, long way . . .
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I heard a little vignette attributed to Christopher West about “Flat Tire Syndrome.” It goes something like this: Ever since the fall of Adam & Eve we have been driving around on flat tires. We don’t question why or whether there would be a better way to drive since everyone is driving on flat tires. Then Jesus comes and tells us how much better it would be to put air in our tires. And we look at one another and think, “Gosh, that’s a weird idea. I don’t know if I want to do that because I’ll be different from everyone else. Everyone will think I’m strange if I put air in my tires. Why do I want to do that? My car still goes just fine without air.” We don’t stop to think that our cars would drive much better if the tires were full of air. Kind of like ourselves. Your thoughts on that verse from Corinthians just made me think of that. Have a happy day!
Thanks, Livy and Jenny, for that reminder–we’re a proud bunch, we humans, and so resistant to change!
I have only read this tonight so obviously I’m slow but it tells me that somehow we raised a beautiful daughter and because of that a beautiful grandaughter.