Love, In a Genuine Eloquence

1 Corinthians 13. This chapter captures love with such genuine eloquence that even a non-believer might pause. Drawn in by the beauty of the language alone.

1 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.

There’s something timeless here, not just about love, but about how we grow into it. We start with the idea, the feeling, the longing. Then we learn to live it. Patiently. Kindly. Without keeping score. Not just in romance, but in how we show up for the world.

May we continue to learn what love truly is. And may it continue to shape who we become.

I Remain,