Love or Hate?
If I speak in tongues of human beings and of angels but I don’t have love, I’m a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal.
– 1 Corinthians 13:1
The Apostle Paul wrote these words to a church that was fighting within itself. He was trying to teach fellow believers how to get along with each other.
We’re so familiar with this passage because it is frequently used at weddings. That was never Paul’s intention. I suppose it’s easier to think of this as being a wedding instruction rather than an admonition directed at the infighting we see today in our churches and in our country.
Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-5
It seems these days that I am always blocking things on social media that I don’t want to see from people I don’t even know. It breaks my heart that friends I care about, people I believe are good people, think it’s okay to share untruths and hate-filled diatribes against those who disagree with them.
Our country has turned on itself. We are so busy pointing fingers at each other, demanding that someone else turn back to God, that we’ve missed our own sins. We have failed to take the plank out of our own eyes.
Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. – 1 Corinthians 13:6
What is truth? Truly. Do you know? Have you read the Bible for yourself? Have you spent time in prayer asking and listening? Or are you merely passing on what someone else has told you? Are you holding on to hate and justifying yourself by proclaiming that it’s your opinion?
As people of God we are called to love, regardless of whether we agree with someone or not. We are called to be kind, even when someone else isn’t. We are called to be humble, not rude or self-seeking. Do others know of your faith by your words and actions?
Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love – but the greatest of these is love.
– 1 Corinthians 13:13
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