“Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies.”
(1 Corinthians 13:4-8, The Message)
I really like The Message translation of this familiar passage in “The Love Chapter.” I have used it a few times in performing wedding ceremonies. It is important to tell those who have found themselves “in love” with each other that real love doesn’t happen to you, it is a deliberate choice about how you will live.
That is not just important for marriage; it is important for life. In fact, the context of 1 Corinthians 13 isn’t married life, but life within the church. The Apostle Paul, in the middle of a discussion about how the members of the church minister to each other and to the world, spends a whole chapter explaining that love is the filter through which all that ministry is to flow.
Within the same chapter he says, “So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love … Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” (13:3,13)
Question: How will you deliberately love those with whom you come in contact today?
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