There’s a wedding I get to perform tonight and I’ve been looking over my notes this morning. As usual, 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the selected scriptures. Sometimes when a particular passage has become redundant to me I like to read it out of a different translation. For this wedding I’m going to use the Message paraphrase.
We’ve discussed aspects of this passage before here, but take a second to read through this today.
1 Corinthians 13: 3-7 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.
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.
When you read through the list which aspect of “love” do you struggle with?
For me it was, “love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have”. I have struggled with this on and off throughout my entire life. I’m trying to understand that part of loving God and loving people is learning to be “content” with who I am and what I have.
As long as I WANT your personality, your house, your gift mix, your bank account, your family situation, your health, your job, your friends….your life, then I can’t really love you in the way God has designed me to love you.
