The Greatest of These

1 Corinthians 13:

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 

2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 

3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 

5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 

6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 

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

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,  

10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 

11 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.  

12 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 I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

     I absolutely adore this passage.  It's one of my favorites, and since Valentine's Day was this week and there was all this talk of love, I thought I would read it again. :)

     In this passage, Paul describes love.  When I reread verses 4 and 5 I really realized how strong love truly is.  It is a very powerful thing, and so often do I throw the word around carelessly, such as: "I love pizza", or "I love NCIS".

     True love is strong.  As verse 8 says, "Love never ends..."  Never is a powerful word.  Never ending means eternal.  Love is eternal.  Christ's love for us is eternal. Wow. :)  That leaves me speechless in wonderful amazement.

     Love lasts, even in those terrible times when everything else seems like it will crumble.  We can always count on God, because He loves us.  His is patient and kind, it isn't rude or resentful.  His love for us is true love.