A More Excellent Way

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Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NRSV)

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. 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.

Devotion:

            You may recognize the scripture passage above. It is common to hear read out at wedding services. Paul, however, was not writing this passage to be a declaration of love to be used at weddings alone. He was writing to a church at Corinth which had lost stability because of their over emphasis on certain flashy gifts. He had in mind such attention grabbers as speaking in unknown tongues, prophesy, and divine words of knowledge. While not degrading these important gifts he was putting them into proper context. The context of love.

            The very word love has come to have so many meanings (many bad and degrading) that a word is in order to discover if we can the meaning of the word love as Paul meant it. Without going into all the detail of the numerous words the Greeks had for love and what they individually mean. We will concentrate on the meaning of the Greek word that Paul actually used. The word agape is the English transliteration of the Greek in question. Agape love has a self-sacrificial quality about it. It means to want the other party to benefit from our words and actions while not asking for anything in return

            This gift of love is considered by Paul to be the greatest of all gifts people can give one another. Not even faith, or generosity, or giving oneself over to be burned carry the excellence that Paul finds in agape love. It is fitting to use this scripture at weddings as it places the emphasis rightly on the love the couple shares. However, we must widen its usage to more mundane situations. It is lovely to see agape practiced by older married couples. Especially where one partner is terminally ill and suffering while the other party serves and cares for them.

            Even outside marital relationships I have been moved by the care and devotion one party assumes for another. All the other gifts that God gives to humankind are made better when practiced with agape love. Let us rejoice in God’s love today.

Prayer:

            Heavenly Father you put your love on full display in the death and resurrection of your son Jesus. We can find no greater expression of love than yours. Help us to become imitators of your generous giving love. Grant to each of us a loving heart that thinks of others needs before our own. Lead us onward to your blessed kingdom where all love will be agape love. Help us to know the joy of that kind of love as we go about our day to day lives. Amen.

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