And I will show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Comment: In summary i) the kindest and most wonderful things and acts, if not based on love are in a sense pointless. ii) Two positives are mentioned – patience and kindness – but it then stresses bad, nasty things. But note the great positiveness to relationships if the ‘not’ things are not present in relationships and character! iii) Paul stresses the durability of love, iv) May be I’m over simplifying things but Paul seems to say that to act against his thoughts is childishness leading to tantrums. Its as if he says ‘Grow up’ and I think that he means into Christlikeness! v) Ok we don’t understand things clearly – the mirror of living on earth is clouded, but one day we will see Jesus face to face! So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love
This passage is frequently read out at weddings. That’s good but note that in its context it fits much better into the command of Jesus – that we should as Christians ‘love one another’ and by that show the reality of Jesus to the watching world. It does relate to marriage in that the ceremony’s joy and emotion needs (if it hasn’t already) to mature into the rich thing that true love is. This goes way beyond ‘He’s my soulmate and I love him so, so deeply!’. That thinking needs people to face reality,. This applies to all of us in marriages, But primarily this passage is for Christians about living daily for Christ in our society and particularly within the Body of Christ. I haven’t said church because that is like a huge tree in the branches of which many things hide!
Prayer: Thank You for the Holy Spirit who walks with us and makes Your Word real to us.
As I read it! 