Revealed, Week 12 // Love // The Way of Love
Day One
Just for a second, I want to remember who Paul was. He was Saul, a Pharisee who hated Christians. Luke uses these phrases to describe him, Saul was ravaging the church; dragged men and women to prison; breathed threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord; Saul approved Stephens execution. I believe it’s fair to say that Saul was a loveless man. But he had an encounter with Love Himself, and everything changed! The new man, Paul, was a walking advertisement for just how deep and wide Love is. When Paul writes, love keeps no record of wrong (NIV), he isn’t preaching from a lofty, unrelatable pulpit. It’s his testimony.
In Paul’s letters to the early churches, the theme of love is throughout. Here are some examples, What can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35); But the fruit of the Spirit is love… (Galatians 5:22); …to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 3:19); …it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more (Philippians 1:9). It is no different in his letters to Corinth. Paul addresses a divided, quarreling church with teachings about sin, traditions, and spiritual gifts. In them, he includes a whole section on love. In summary Paul is saying that no matter how great of a disciple we become, without love we have nothing. The Voice* translation adds the following commentary.
“Paul boils it all down for the believers in Corinth. Religious people often spend their time practicing rituals, projecting dogma, and going through routines that might look like Christianity on the outside but that lack the essential ingredient that brings all of it together—love! It is a loving God who birthed creation and now pursues a broken people in the most spectacular way. That same love must guide believers, so faith doesn’t appear to be meaningless noise.”
By looking at the big picture of Paul’s life, we see one example of how God reveals his love to us and, then, reveals love through us. When I look at my life, I see a similar pattern. I’ve never been a murderer, but I have been full of myself, drowning in sin, and stubborn. Oh man, the stubbornness! Love’s endurance, love’s gentleness has changed all of us who believe and confess Jesus as Lord. It is our testimony!
This week for the daily scriptures to read and meditate on, I’ve broken up 1 Corinthians 13 into sections and included two translations. Sometimes a different translation is helpful to see a familiar passage in a fresh way. As you read the sections, ask the Holy Spirit to show (remind) you of how love has been revealed, present, and active in your life.
©2018 Adrienne H. Scott
*Acknowledgements: (VOICE) The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
Day Two
1 Corinthians 13:1-3, ESV
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3, VOICE
What if I speak in the most elegant languages of people or in the exotic languages of the heavenly messengers, but I live without love? Well then, anything I say is like the clanging of brass or a crashing cymbal. What if I have the gift of prophecy, am blessed with knowledge and insight to all the mysteries, or what if my faith is strong enough to scoop a mountain from its bedrock, yet I live without love? If so, I am nothing. I could give all that I have to feed the poor, I could surrender my body to be burned as a martyr, but if I do not live in love, I gain nothing by my selfless acts.
Day Three
1 Corinthians 13:4-7, ESV
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7, VOICE
Love is patient; love is kind. Love isn’t envious, doesn’t boast, brag, or strut about. There’s no arrogance in love; it’s never rude, crude, or indecent—it’s not self-absorbed. Love isn’t easily upset. Love doesn’t tally wrongs or celebrate injustice; but truth—yes, truth—is love’s delight! Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along; it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what.
Day Four
1 Corinthians 13:8-10, ESV
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
1 Corinthians 13:8-10, VOICE
Love will never become obsolete. Now as for the prophetic gifts, they will not last; unknown languages will become silent, and the gift of knowledge will no longer be needed. Gifts of knowledge and prophecy are partial at best, at least for now, but when the perfection and fullness of God’s kingdom arrive, all the parts will end.
Day Five
1 Corinthians 13:11-12, ESV
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known
1 Corinthians 13:11-12, VOICE
When I was a child, I spoke, thought, and reasoned in childlike ways as we all do. But when I became a man, I left my childish ways behind. For now, we can only see a dim and blurry picture of things, as when we stare into polished metal. I realize that everything I know is only part of the big picture. But one day, when Jesus arrives, we will see clearly, face-to-face. In that day, I will fully know just as I have been wholly known by God.
Day Six
1 Corinthians 13:13, ESV
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13, VOICE
But now faith, hope, and love remain; these three virtues must characterize our lives. The greatest of these is love.
Day Seven
Selah
Brave Sparrow 