13 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.
8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
Yes, I agree! This is actually one of many of my favorites! Love NEVER fails and we can see this being played out over and over in today's world with the example of a mother's love for her children. It's just beautiful.
I think you are right! Love is the key to all the spiritual gifts and without it faith won't work. St. Paul realized this and so he was inspired to write about love's power. Just think if we, the Church could get our love walk right... we'd become His Church that he spoke of without spot or blemish. People would truly know us by the love that we have for one another.
Speaking of showing love... I was working for my agency on Saturday night and was assigned a person on Isolation that the regual staff didn't want to care for. When I went to assess him and do his blood pressure, I saw that he was walking around naked in his room! Immediately, I thoght that he had some mental health issue, because who does that in a hospital! lol
I went to the nursing station to ask the regular staff if he was all their in the head because I didn't understand why he would be walking around in his room stark naked!!! The comment I got, "He all there, but just disgusting!" I wanted to comment, so you give me a disgusting patient. I digress.
Before the shift was over, he was calling me into his room to watch the X-Factor on his iPhone. I showed compassion and for that I was invited to watch the X-Factor. I made sure to let the nurses know that I thought he was a really nice guy. Isn't that what being a follower of Christ is all about? Showing love and compassion as He did for those who were less desirable?
Indeed, it's astounding, and I too can never have enough of reading, sharing and being among the company of ones who feel likewise in the same manner as you both!
