This week my friend Sara reminded me that the really amazing thing about 1 Corinthians 13 is that even hundreds of thousands of schlocky wedding and inspirational posters and bad Christian coffee mugs can�t kill it. Paul�s hymn to love is perhaps one of the most recognizable texts in the New Testament. And it is really beautiful� but it has just about nothing to do with romance.
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
To be sure, the subject of love is a tricky one because we so often are loved poorly, loved incompletely, loved conditionally. And, forgive the pop psychology, but my theory is that when we are loved so poorly, we begin on some level to assume that we are maybe undeserving of being loved well. And from this state of being loved poorly, feeling undeserving, and then loving poorly in return � which let�s face it, is the foundation of Oprah and Dr. Phil�s entire empire; from this state we do some stuff that�s� unhelpful.
I�ve been thinking about the things I�ve done in my life to try and make myself more lovable. I lost weight, I tried to not use big words, I tried even when a joke wasn�t funny. And when I was dating Matthew�and those of you who know me will get this, I went camping. I tried showing the other person only the parts of myself which I thought were lovable and if there weren�t enough of those parts then I just manufactured some. Because I was sure that to know me� is actually not to love me.
We come by this naturally, given messages as we are about what is okay and what is not. Strong smart girls learn to act ditzy and helpless; tender-hearted boys learn to toughen up. And it�s no secret that some of these messages insisting on our fragmentation came from the church. I remember a male Sunday School teacher in 5th grade taking my parents aside and suggesting that they insist I stop answering all the questions in Sunday School so quickly because then the little boys, who really should be answering the questions, don�t really get a chance.
Richard Rhor has a way of assessing our spiritual health. Namely, what do we do with pain? Do we transmit it or do we transform it? Because the mirror in which we might see ourselves as God sees us gets dimmer and dimmer when the pain of being human is transmitted to us and not transformed. As our own sin and brokenness becomes a lens through which we view ourselves and others the mirror grows dimmer. And then the pain of not knowing who we really are becomes transmitted through all the things Paul describes: arrogance, impatience, unkindness, envy, selfishness. It can be a desperate cycle based on something as simple as the truth my mother once spoke: �honey, bullies just bully out of their own hurt inside as though they have to spread it.� But this is true of so many things when we think about it. And I think what Paul was saying to his little church plant gone bad was, �stop hurting each other.� Stop transmitting your hurt and sin. Because from that state of being loved poorly, feeling undeserving, and then loving poorly in return, we do some stuff that�s� unhelpful.
This letter to the church in Corinth wasn�t providing a sentimental reading for their weddings � it was a smackdown. They were bickering and dysfunctional and competitive. They were being petty and prideful and ridiculous. They didn�t know who they were and Paul was trying to remind them � not by telling them about history or biology or sociology � but by telling them about love. Not the emotion of love. Not the sentiment of love. Not the romance of love. Because honestly I have yet to see a Hallmark card with I love you so much that I will endure you. This love has really nothing to do with feeling nice. It�s actually not about feelings at all, it�s about truth. It�s about the truth of who we are through the eyes of a God who knows us fully.
This love described by Paul isn�t mushy and sentimental. It�s tough and unwilling to yield. This love that is patient and kind and isn�t rude or boastful and is self-giving and all that. Here�s what is scary about this kind of love: you can�t manipulate it. There is no amount of weight loss, piety, personality management, big smiles, or strained pretense that can affect this love. And maybe in the absence of manipulation we stand bare before the eyes of God. This love is found in the gaze of God as God looks upon us naked and whole. Because this type of love is characterized by the giver, not the receiver. Gone are the strivings and manipulations and efforts to make ourselves more lovable. In the face-to-face gaze of the beloved, we are known because we are loved. We aren�t loved because we are known.
I think Paul might be telling us to be the face of love for each other. When we know that we are loved by God in the fullness of God�s knowledge of us, we are free to live in this love. Free to transmit the love of Christ in a hurting world. Free to see ourselves and others as God sees us. Not because we are good, but because we are loved. And seeing just a glimpse, wanting it, moving toward it, brings us closer to what is promised to us forever: that we will see God, who is love, face to face.
I am happy to share my blessings ! Its nice to experiencing such a blessing now , instead of feeling bad ( as i used to ) for not having a Valentine...Now we know what a Valentine should be and what it should look like. Not till we are able to be that special person can we expect to get/have this kind of person.It is so much easier for me to wish for that perfect valentine , then to be that valentine.
Saint Valentine's Day (shortened to Valentine's Day) is an annual holiday held on February 14 celebrating love for one another.
The holiday is named after one or more early Christian people named Valentine and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD.
It is a day on which people expresses their love for each other by presenting flowers, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines").
The holiday first became associated with people showing they love someone in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the (European History in the 11, 12, and 13th
Century).
Modern Valentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves.
Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards.
HERE IS A THOUGHT: WE ALSO SHOULD REMEMBER, WHO WE LOVE MORE THAN ANYONE OR ANYTHING AND THAT IS NONE OTHER THAN JESUS CHRIST,
FOR HEDIED ON THE CROSS FOR OUR SINS, THAT IS "TRUEL LOVE".
SO, DONT JUST THINK ABOUT THE ONES WE LOVE HERE ON EARTH, BUT ALSO REMEMBER THIS IS ALSO ANOTHER DAY TO SAY " LORD WE LOVE YOU"
WE SHOULD TELL GOD WE LOVE HIM EVERYDAY FOR LIKE I SAID, HE DIED ON THE CROSS FOR US.
JOHN 15:9-17
JOHN (9) As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. (10) If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide (to continue) in my
love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
(11) These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
(12)This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
(13) Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
(14) Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
(15) (Henceforth = from this time on) I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth (does): but I have called you friends; for all
things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
(16) Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that
whatsoever ( any) ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
(17) These things I command you, that ye love one another.
even when a joke wasn�t funny. And when I was dating Matthew�and those of you who know me will get this, I went camping. I tried showing the other person only the parts of myself which I thought were lovable and if there weren�t enough of those parts then I just manufactured some. Because I was sure that to know me� is actually not to love me.