If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If 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. If 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.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails....
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
The Greatest of These is Love
Faith, we each have a measure faith, however big or small.
Hope, needless to say without hope we are hopeless. But love, without love, we are nothing more than animals who wear clothes or jewelry or who eat with utensils.
But we aren't mere animals, we are created beings, made in the image and likeness of a Creator. One who are quite capable of love, real love.
And really we love because God loved us first. We love, because some other person first loved us -- such as our mom who bore us, refused to give us up, didn't gave up on us, or who adopted and took care of us as if we were her own, toiling for many years until we can survive on our own, if we could even manage that.
Love
Anyway, God is love, so really those same verses should read like this (as in the NLT):
God is patient, God is kind. God is not jealous. God is not boastful. God is not proud. God is not rude. God does not demand its own way. God is not irritable. God does not keep record of being wronged. God does not rejoice about injustice. God rejoices whenever the truth wins out. God never gives up. God never loses faith. God is always hopeful. God endures through every circumstance.
We on the other hand are everything but.
We are impatient as can be. We aren't kind. We envy. We boast. We are proud, and proud of that fact. We are rude. We want things done our way. We have our own little agenda. We are ticked off by just about anything. We may forgive, but we hardly forget the wrongs other people did to us. We are quitters. We are a bunch of whiners, fault-finders, lazy and stubborn fools.And we keep on doing the same stupid mistakes over and over again.
And what could we do about this? Nothing really. Except for love. We need to love ourselves and others with the same love God has first gave us, the love somebody else showed us.
Love -- the hold it, clench your mouth, close your eyes, breathe in, count to three and breathe out kind of love that always wins the day for anybody who just would want to strangle somebody who really deserves a good kick in the behind. When you could hug that one person who has done you the worst thing one could ever possibly do to you. When you could give that person a gift or treat her to lunch (no not dinner), ice cream or coffee. When you could do all these and more then you've found real love.
You could be anybody and you could have everything but without real love, what are you really? Nothing.
God is love, and that is the only place we could find it.
This is the lesson I prepared for our Sunday Service Team Meeting, February 15, 2015
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