Read
Love
1What if I could speak
all languages of humans
and even of angels?
If I did not love others,
I would be nothing more
than a noisy gong
or a clanging cymbal.
2 What if I could prophesy
and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge?
And what if I had faith
that moved mountains?
I would be nothing,
unless I loved others.
3What if I gave away all
that I owned
and let myself
be burned alive?
I would gain nothing,
unless I loved others.
4Love is patient and kind,
never jealous, boastful,
proud, or 5rude.
Love isn't selfish
or quick tempered.
It doesn't keep a record
of wrongs that others do.
6Love rejoices in the truth,
but not in evil.
7Love is always supportive,
loyal, hopeful,
and trusting.
8Love never fails!
Everyone who prophesies
will stop,
and unknown languages
will no longer
be spoken.
All that we know
will be forgotten.
9We don't know everything,
and our prophecies
are not complete.
10But what is perfect
will someday appear,
and what isn't perfect
will then disappear.
11When we were children,
we thought and reasoned
as children do.
But when we grew up,
we quit our childish ways.
12Now all we can see of God
is like a cloudy picture
in a mirror.
Later we will see him
face to face.
We don't know everything,
but then we will,
just as God completely
understands us.
13For now there are faith,
hope, and love.
But of these three,
the greatest is love.
Reflect
I suspect every pastor wishes he had more people like the man in verses 1-3! Look at him: a good speaker (v 1), very wise, a person of dynamic faith (v 2), generous to the point of sacrifice and ready if need be to die for Christ (v 3). Just about as close to the ideal as one could come – right? Wrong! The last sentence in verses 2 and 3 tells me what he is worth. It seems unbelievable, doesn’t it?
What is love worth? Love is worth so much that everything else without love adds up to zero (vv 1-3)!
What is love like? How can a man who “gave away all that [he] owned” (v 3) be said to have no love? It’s a sign that we don’t know what the word means, nor do many people in our churches who are always talking about “love.” I find verses 4 to 7 amazing. Love does not begin with what I do at all. It begins with what I am inside, and what I think of myself. The person who loves is one with a Christ-like heart.
Respond
Help me to care about other people as much as I care about myself, and to think the same way that Christ Jesus thought when he became one of us (Philippians 2:4-7). Amen.
Tony Capon
Born in England, Tony served in the British Army in Germany 1945-48, then graduated from Cambridge University and Oak Hill Theological College London. He served as an Anglican priest in London and in 1956, Tony and his wife emigrated to Canada. There he served as Associate and President of Scripture Union. Later, as SU Co-ordinator for the Americas, he travelled widely in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean promoting the work of SU. From 1975 to 1978 he served as Director of Development at Wycliffe College, Toronto, and from 1978 to 1991 as Principal of Montreal Diocesan Theological College. He has just celebrated his 90th birthday!