Monday, January 30, 2023

Today’s Scripture Reading

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January 30, 2023
Scripture Reading
1 Corinthians 13:1–13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And 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. If 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.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love 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. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When 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. For 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. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (NRSV)

Reflection

There is something about this passage that used to make me cringe whenever I heard it at a wedding. It is the dissonance created in my brain within the first three verses because I hear “even if I am an eloquent speaker, I am just noise; even if I explain all things of heaven and earth, I am nothing; even if I give everything away, I gain nothing.” What does my brain seem to leave out? LOVE. Curious that I tend to ‘hear’ over the phrase, “but do not have love.”

The early church in Corinth was a vast mixture of people from all cultures, lifestyles, languages, and ethnicities. They were trying to form a community of faith while figuring out how to navigate their differences, and they became more focused on the outward signs of faith (speaking in tongues and prophesy) rather than on the divine love of God within, the inner catalyst for acts of faith. Paul drops chapter 13 between his discourse about one body with many parts (chapter 12), and his explanation that all gifts of the spirit are from God and unite us to God, but no one gift is greater than the others (chapter 14).

Paul is aiming to open the hearts of the Corinthian believers (and us) to understand that God is love, and it is God’s love for each of them (us) that they (we) reflect out into the world. He wants them (us) to understand that their (our) gifts are given to them (us) to build up one another, not to compete with one another (isn’t that what we all hope a marriage will be?). When we act out of love then we are in right relationship with God and our faith is more deeply rooted and substantial; we can move mountains. However, if we act only for ourselves without love, then our work is not complete.

Next time I hear this passage I will listen more intently with an open heart and love.

Prayer

God, help me check my ego at the door as I go out into the world, so that I may be a bright reflection of your love to everyone I meet and in every situation! Amen

Written by Annette Mileski, Director, Center for Life and Learning

Reflection and prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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