PRAY: repeat prayer from day 1
READ: 1 Corinthians 12:31b–13:7
MEDITATE:
At the conclusion of his chapter on the gifts of the Spirit, after admonishing his readers to “desire the best gifts,” Paul then promises to show them the way that is superior to all others—love. The love of which he speaks was not an abstract virtue. Rather, it was a love that had been defined by God’s action in sending Jesus Christ into the world. It was a love that reached out to those who did not deserve it, a love that put the interests of others first, a love that forgave people and started over with them. It means that caring, forgiving, redeeming love which is the essence of God’s nature.
In every religious controversy it is love that leaves first. This was certainly true in Corinth, where they were fighting over the gift of tongues. How much more when the controversy concerns the basic and profoundly important issues of God’s intent for human sexuality!
Lest we become sloppy in our application of love to current issues, we would do well to remember that the all-supremely-loving Jesus Christ could clear the temple in righteous indignation (Mark 11:15–18), and unleash a torrential rebuke of the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his day (Matthew 23).
Lewis Smedes outlines this approach in his study of this chapter in his Love Within Limits. Among other insights, he notes that God has limits to his patience, and so must we. Neither does patience include the toleration of evil. “Kindness” is both intelligent and tough, “without wisdom and honesty,” it “easily becomes mere pity, bound to hurt more people than it helps.”
Questions and Application:
- What does this passage say?
- What does this passage mean?
- How does our congregation manifest love?
PRAY: Gracious Father, we pray for your holy catholic church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where in my own life there is corruption, purify me; where I am in error, direct me; where in anything I have wandered astray, draw me to your side. Grant that I might reflect the perfect love of your son, who died that I might live. Amen.