True Love!

I've been to lots of weddings - perhaps thousands. I've sung, played the violin, played the organ, played the piano and even been the preacher. Now and then I've even just been a spectator.

Of course the best wedding ever was way back when on a beautiful June afternoon after a string quartet played some lovely music a beautiful young girl walked down a really long aisle to join a really young guy in holy matrimony (we used fancy words like that back then) and the lovely Miss Cheryl Lynn became Mrs. Lyndel Littleton. Haha! We also wore powder blue tuxes with big ruffles on our tux shirts!

Anyway... at MANY of these weddings I've heard this rather famous passage of scripture read out of many different translations. Today you'll see it in the Holman Christian Standard.

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love,
I am a sounding gong
or a clanging cymbal.

If I have [the gift of] prophecy,
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.

And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor,
and if I give my body to be burned,
but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind.
Love does not envy;
is not boastful; is not conceited;

does not act improperly; is not selfish;
is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs;

finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth;

bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

Here's the kicker.

This passage was not written for lovers. It wasn't Paul's gift to wedding coordinators and wedding chapel preachers.

Nope.

This passage was written to the CHURCH! This is how we are supposed to treat each other. This is how the world will know that we are different. This is how the world will know God's love - when they see it demonstrated - lived out - in the church.

Jesus said, "By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:35

That means we show love in all the ways that are listed in 1 Corinthians 13 to each other in the church. Of course marriages are to be an example of Christ and the church, so the passage definitely applies to couples. (but that's a whole other post)

Let me encourage you to show the love of God - as seen in 1 Corinthians 13 - this week. (since God is love, He is all of the things listed here)