1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NRSV)
Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 13If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Verse 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. Verse 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Verse 4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant Verse 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; Verse 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Verse 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Verse 8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. Verse 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; Verse 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. Verse 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. Verse 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. Verse 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Devotion
Cue the wedding bells! Rather, cue the love of God. When we are not so loving, God is. When we are not patient and kind, God is. When we are insistent on our own way, irritable and resentful, God is not. God in Jesus, like a fool, rushes in to find us in our brokenness and imperfection. Finds us like a bride and groom sculpting their perfect day, presenting what we all hope will be a perfect life. But we know better the ways love is not. Those ways live with us in all our human communities. So St. Paul tells his Corinthian congregation and us, our brokenness is not the last word. Love will not allow it. Love, as revealed in Jesus, will bring us to forgiveness and new life. Our love for each other will never be perfect, but in Christ Jesus, love is always possible. Love never ends.
Prayer
God who is love, may your love find us new each day. Open our eyes that we may see your love more clearly. And as imperfect as we are, may we reflect your love to each other and the world around us. Through Christ our Light, Amen.