136: Love Never Ends {1 Corinthians 13}
Today, I am offering a simple reading of a familiar passage. It’s a passage often read at weddings; but at its core, it’s really a reminder of what matters most, in the middle of it all. I find I need to be reminded of what matters most over and over again these days. Maybe you can relate?
There will also be some space toward the end for you to consider several reflection questions. Feel free to pause, rewind, replay—whatever you need to do as you engage this passage. As always, I hope it serves you well.
A reading from 1 Corinthians 13 as found in the New Revised Standard Version:
13 If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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 do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If 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.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; 6 [love] does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love 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. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When 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. 12 For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, 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. 13 And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Does anything stand out to you in this passage? Maybe a word, image, or phrase? A feeling or a question? Take a moment to consider what that might be for you.
What do you notice about your response to the passage? Do you resonate with it? Are you bothered by it? Both can be true, or you might notice something else entirely. Take a moment to sit with that response. All responses are welcome.
Have you ever experienced this kind of love? Either within yourself or through another person?
Now, consider your current life and circumstances. If it’s helpful, maybe even focus in on this very day. What reminder or invitation might God be offering you in this passage?
Finally, as you consider that reminder or invitation, what do you need from God?
Today, remember, love never ends. And so, may love be the main thing as we continue to become the people God calls and invites us to be.