The Greatest of All Virtues

 

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as rI have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:9-13 ESV).

 

Our reading today is a part of a larger text that has often been read at weddings. It is the epitome of the greatest of all virtues. Its poetic description of love is so universal that people everywhere are encouraged and strengthened by its message. The Greek word for “love” in this chapter is the word agape, which describes the deepest love we can imagine. This is pure, unconditional love, for which we would give up our life to save another. This kind of love is the truest expression of “dying to live.” The apostle Paul explains here that love is more important than all the other things we can do. And if we do anything without love, it means nothing.

 

He also talks about knowing only “in part” and about someday knowing “fully.” In other words, there’s a lot we don’t know yet. This is an interesting inclusion in the lesson. After all, what does not knowing have to do with love? Two thoughts come to mind: first, the older I get, the more I realize how much I don’t know; and second, the more certain I am of something, the freer I feel to judge others who don’t have the same certainty. The problem with that, of course, is that the freer I feel to judge, the less loving I become.

 

What I have discovered as the means to keep me from becoming less loving is the intention of reminding me of the truth that I don’t need to be right, especially in view of my limitations. Being right is so empty and sterile. Turn to the love that Jesus has shown to you and mimic that with others. It truly is the greatest of all virtues.