1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NRSV)
Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 13If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Verse 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. Verse 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.
Verse 4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant Verse 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; Verse 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Verse 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Verse 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. Verse 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; Verse 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. Verse 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. Verse 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. Verse 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Devotion
Wait a minute! Where's the bride? This reading seems out of place outside a wedding ceremony. But should it?
We all have memories associated with today's text. One of mine is when a tenor in a choir I directed asked me to set this text to music so that he could sing it as a gift for his father's surprise birthday party. He said this text reminded him of his dad. Only a few years later, our tenor died, still in his late 30s, leaving behind his wife and young daughter; the choir sang "his" song at his funeral.
I recently conducted a funeral for a woman who left behind her husband of 66 years. As I sat with the family discussing the funeral, their son-in-law began to quote this text from memory, saying, "That was Mom." This text about God's love is too rich to reserve only for weddings.
Prayer
Fill me with your love, O Lord, until I see you face to face. Amen.