A. Introduction – Love is the essential feature of life in a healthy faith community. During the past month I have experienced such love first hand from First Church and beyond with:
- The many kind thoughts and prayers for our family, which have truly been felt!
- The generous leave from the parish during the month of February. (I was able to do some work remotely 😉)
In its original context 1 Corinthians 13 is sandwiched between chapters 12 and 14,where St. Paul deals with the issue of the proper use of spiritual gifts (GK: charisma) in the church. Today, however, it is more often read out at weddings because it contains one of the best definitions of true love ever written, especially verses 4-6, which may have constituted an early Christian hymn.
B. The Hymn to Love (1 Cor. 13: 4-6 in the NRSV – P/B NT p.162):
4 Love is patient (KJV: long-suffering); love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude (NTFE: no shameless ways). It does not insist on its own way (TM: Isn’t always me first); it is not irritable (TM: Doesn’t fly off the handle) or resentful (NIV: it keeps no record of wrongs); 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
C. The man in the mirror – James of Jerusalem in the book of James 1:23-25 implies that the Bible, (the perfect law of liberty), is like a mirror in which we gain true insight!
Let’s hit the pause button, take a moment and try putting our own name in the blank spaces: 4 ______is patient; ______is kind; ______is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. ______does not insist on its own way; ______is not irritable or resentful; 6 _______does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth …
Let’s close in a word of prayer!
