Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Faith, Hope and Love

Probably my favorite chapter of the bible is 1 Cor. 13.  I used to say that this should be posted on everyone's refrigerator. One year, maybe 2006? we made several hundred small copies of the chapter and glued magnets on the back and gave them out.  I suspect that there are still some refrigerators hosting that memoir.

I read the chapter at every wedding.   I always say, "sometimes people think that they have heard this enough."  And I reply... Do you have it all down?  Until we get the love down, I suggest we read it again and again and again.

13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 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. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 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. 12 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.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.


It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

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