More on living in the Spirit …
I’m willing to bet that nearly all of us are familiar with this passage, and that half of us who are married had at least piece of this read at our weddings. In those cases, we are considering marital love. However, this passage is not at all restricted to a marriage relationship. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul discusses that the church is one body with many parts – we all have a function within this body, each part being placed by God. Then he begins the discussion of how the members of the body should act. Not just to spouses, but to all.
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1 Corinthians 12:31 – 13:13
31 Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way.
1 If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
2 And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated,
5 it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
6 it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
9 For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
11 When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
12 At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
13 So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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There is sooooooo much to consider in this passage. Verses 4-7 are the most quoted verses, which the description of love in vivid detail. But both before and after, Paul describes the overall role of love in the Christian life. We are told to put aside thinking like a child (which to me means that we are called to grow to spiritual maturity). We only see a partial world right know, but eventually we will see the perfect world, and in that world the greatest thing is love.
