1 Corinthians 13 is probably the best-known segment of the Apostle Paul’s writing. If you have been to a church wedding, you have probably heard it read: “If I speak in the tongues of angels but have not love…” – you may know the rest. It is a beautiful description of God’s love for us, and about how, someday, we will know and see God fully, just as God has known and seen us fully for our entire lives. And while the descriptions of love are wonderful, they are also a bit too lofty for us to believe that we humans can achieve them in this life. Try, we should; achieve – that’s a bit more difficult. Still, the reminder that love is essential to a good life, and that love is greater than even faith and hope, is a great way to aspire to live.
One of the themes in this first letter to the church in Corinth is equality. No matter who you are, or what your spiritual gift is, you are loved just as much as anyone else. Whether you are preaching or healing or mopping the floor, it is all good and important work. Saying things like, “I’m just a …” diminish God’s good work done in each of us. I am reminded of the mother of three sons I met years ago who told me that one was a doctor, one was a lawyer, and the youngest had Down’s Syndrome. She loved them all but admitted that her youngest was the kindest and most compassionate of the three. He didn’t have a “disability”; his spiritual gift was to love without constraint.
I think that we all have trauma that holds us back from fully being who God made us to be, and that trauma often works to limit our willingness to love without constraint. I know a lot of faithful people who struggle to love those who are not faithful. I have heard a lot of hope expressed by people with limited compassion. Love, though, is the great equalizer. Allowing love to rule in our hearts opens us up to work at all the superlatives Paul wrote of: patience, kindness, truth – and it allows us to become more than we can imagine. It might even open us up to loving our enemies and neighbors a little bit more than we have allowed ourselves to do in the past. We might even point to learning to love others more as an awakening, of sorts. It can’t hurt. Hate closes us down, but love opens us up.
Prayer – Holy God, teach us to love each other as You have loved us. Amen.
Today’s art is “Love Story” by Kami Lerner.