Lord, teach us to love

CG was cancelled today but I have prepared for bible study on love in 1 Cor 13. I have looked up the Chinese character for love and saw that it can actually be a summary of 1 Cor 13! 

Love in Mandarin in traditional Chinese is 愛 (ài). The parts of "爫" and "夂" both mean actions. "心 (xīn)" means heart. Isn't it clear then that all our actions mean nothing if it is not from the heart, which sits right in the center of it all.  

"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love." 

(1 Cor 13:1-7, The Message)

Our Father in heaven, you have said that of faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love. Faith will become sight and hope will see realization when we finally meet you. Only love will last forever and forever. Help us grow and mature in love in the way you have taught us.

"Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.

Love doesn't strut,

Doesn't have a swelled head,

Doesn't force itself on others,

Isn't always "me first,"

Doesn't fly off the handle,

Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn't revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love."

(1 Cor 13:4-13, The Message)

Amen

pearlie