Love: A Takeaway

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

Sometimes I’ll read a passage or lesson or be in a situation where I want to remember one main thing: a takeaway.

I think these can be helpful in directing our priorities, and memories. Also, I’m fooling myself if I think I can remember everything I read.

In our current Wednesday morning bible study, we’re reading an author who likes to outline his main points so that it’s easier, as a reader, to grab those “takeaways”. I also read a memoir/how-to by an author who shared at least once in each chapter the phrase “if you were my student, I’ll tell you…” and then he’d put into words exactly what you needed to remember. This kind of writing begs for a yellow highlighter so that we can know what to retain. The takeaway.

Paul provided a takeaway in 1 Corinthians 13 when he said: “But the greatest of these is love.”

The entire passage: If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Prayer: Dear Lord, help us to show love to others. This may look like: being kind, listening to someone, sharing with someone, helping someone, grieving with someone. There are many ways to show love; show us the many ways when we interact with others, those close to us and strangers we encounter. Amen.

Donna Gustafson