The Greatest of These is Love

I'm wearing my purple again to support Domestic Violence Awareness!!

I know we've all heard the following verses at weddings. But really, really READ them. Read them aloud and LISTEN to the words and what they are saying.

1 Corinthians 13

 ¹ If I speak in the tongues 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, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Basically, one can be the most charming, most charismatic person around.  They can be intelligent and well read and seem to have a resounding faith in God. They give to charity and help others in need. But if they do these things for love of themselves and not because they feel love for others, then it's for 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. 

This is the most important section to me.  I think the words speak for themselves. If this is not your relationship, then maybe it's the wrong relationship.
 
 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.

I won't pretend to even get this part. I feel like it means that the older we get, the more we understand about true love.  I keep thinking about a child with a baby chicken. (My parents raise chickens, so...) He can love that chicken in his childish, selfish way. He wants to pet it and squeeze it and keep it safe, all for himself.  But if he "  loves"   it too much, he'll crush it to death and his so called love will kill it.  Hopefully, as an adult, we realize this.  One day, when we see God, we will fully know what true love is.
 
 ¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 

What more is there to say, really? The greatest of these is LOVE!