1 Corinthians 13:1-13
LOVE
1 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. 2 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. 3 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.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
John 3:16-17
God Sent Jesus to Save the World
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Matthew 9:12-13
Jesus Came for Sinners
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Matthew 22:36-40
The Greatest Commandment
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
When I first heard these words long ago that Paul wrote to the Corinthians about, I am sure I was at a wedding...Later I would hear these words again at many weddings...And when I hear these verses, I think of a romantic love -especially around the wedding and the ceremony with the two in love, and their beginning of love...Even today, when I read the Bible and St. Paul's letters to the Corinthians, weddings and romance came to my mind...
Yet, when St. Paul started this letter to the Church in Corinth romantic love was probably not on his mind...The Church of Corinth was having problems...There were factions and divisions in the church, there were rumors in the church, and there were disputes in the church...There was not a lot of love in the church that St. Paul is writing...There was conflict...This letter to the church was to bring back some unity to the church...St. Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians to bring the church back together...And in the middle of his epistle, we find some of the greatest of the world's love verses ever to be written...St. Paul is telling the fighting groups from Corinth, this is what love is and what love does...St. Paul is in a way asking the Corinthians to rise above their disputes and love each other...The Bible teaches us this very thing, to rise above our strife and conflicts and love...
To add a point about romantic love, there are times when conflict and strife get into one's romantic relationship...And we learn from St. Paul and his Teacher Jesus, that love is the best way to solve these issues...Because as Paul writes, love does not keep track of rights and wrongs...Love does not boast, is not proud, and is not self-seeking...So love goes beyond pride in a conflict and is ready to forgive and make up...
Now this message is a theme and in the story of the Bible...God LOVES the world so much He sent His Son to save us sinners, not to condemn us...Jesus came for us sinners and die for us sinners, yet we still struggle even today with conflict and disputes in our relationships today...If God can send His Son to die for us, one would think that we could easily love others...When Jesus tells us that the Greatest of Commandments are about love and that all the Books of Law and the Books of the Prophets were written about our love for God, and the love we have for our neighbors, we can see why St. Paul writes that the greatest of the things in life is love...