“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. 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. 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.” - 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
This is the opening verse to an often used marriage reading. It highlights the need for love, and it continues
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
“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. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 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. 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.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.“
A problem with academia is the promise of the sure result, is not matched with the truth, that every result must be continuously defended. And ancient Greece was the home of academia. Paul went to Corinth and shared his life as a Christian. And Paul returned. Frustrated. Hurt. Explaining again and again what he had meant as Corinthians split hairs.
But the result is a pure distillation of Paul’s message. We may know that God is love. Here we are told explicitly why. More, Paul explains how we are to use that knowledge. We are to love as we do our duty. Christ, speaking for God the message of reconciliation with God. Not that people are god like. The ambassadorship is the message of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. We have eternal life. We have been made to live again. We do what is right out of love, and if we do wrong? We make mistakes, and we persevere until we do what is right.
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