Reminder to love

On Sunday evenings at our church we've been having a series of lessons on the three words faith, hope, and love.  The last lesson was last night and it focused on I Corinthians 13. 

You have probably read this countless times as well as heard it read at weddings or seen it printed on artwork.  It is a very popular passage.  I appreciated the reminder I had about love last night from this passage and wanted to share it with you today.  We started with the last verse of I Corinthians 12. 

As Christians we need to remember that anything we do that is not done in love will amount to nothing.  It may look good to others on the outside, but if it is not done in love then it does not matter.  As humans we take pride in our accomplishments, knowledge, and generosity.  But if we do not have love then none of these amount to anything.  Something that stuck out to me last night was the part about faith....we can have faith that moves mountains but that is nothing if we do not have love.  This shows me just how BIG of a think love really is!  Love really is the "most excellent way."     

And now I will show you the most excellent way.

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. 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.
 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.
¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.  I Corinthians 12:31--13:13

 I hear this song on the radio all the time and thought it was appropriate to share with this today. I love the ending.   

Have a day of blessings!