So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I Corinthians 13:13
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
I Corinthians 13:4-8
For the last several reflections, we have spent a great amount of time just focusing on five verses of Scripture. Each verse is packed with meaning, as we have discussed. There are still a few more verses from I Corinthians 13 to discuss, but before we continue on, we will offer one concluding reflection on I Corinthians 13:4-8.
In writing all the characteristics of love, St. Paul has also written all of the characteristics of God. Because God is love, so whatever things are ascribed to love can also be ascribed to God. Let’s read the passage inserting the name of God in the place of love:
God is patient and kind; God is not jealous or boastful; God is not arrogant or rude. God does not insist in His own way; God is not irritable or resentful. God does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. God never ends.
If we are God’s people, if we say we believe in God, if we are called to love (God and one another), then we should be able to put our own names into this passage and have it read as truth:
(Your name) is patient. (Your name) is kind. (Your name) is not jealous. (Your name) is not boastful. (Your name) is not arrogant. (Your name) is not rude. (Your name) does not insist on my own way. (Your name) is not irritable. (Your name) is not resentful. (Your name) does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. (Your name) bears all things. (Your name) believes all things. (Your name) hopes all things. (Your name) endures all things. (Your name) never stops doing these things.
If we read this passage slowly, replacing love and God with our own name, this passage all of a sudden becomes very sobering. Think about all the times we lose our patience, how many times we say something unkind that isn’t even necessary. Our world is promoting materialism which leads to a perpetual sense of jealousy, and in order to make up for what we don’t have, we start boasting about what we do have just to maintain some kind of standing in our peer group. When we boast enough, we start to come off as arrogant. When we push ourselves to the front, we become rude. When we try to coerce someone to accept us or do something we want, (coercion goes way beyond encouragement by the way) we are insisting on our own way. When things don’t work out as we want them to, we become irritable. Consistent irritability breeds resentment (this is a key ingredient in marriages and friendships that fall apart, we fail to see the good in the other person). When we are glass half-empty and pessimistic, it becomes harder to see the good in others. Impatience steals our ability to bear all things. Cynicism causes us to question all things. Sadness crushes hope. And stress affects endurance. Take all of this stuff together and its hard to see ourselves as loving people in all circumstances.
If I Corinthians 13:4-8, is a checklist for how to love God and how to love one another, and if we really examine this passage from a personal perspective, this is very sobering indeed. We will discuss in the future how all sin results from a failure to love. Every sin is tied to a lack of patience and kindness, to being jealous, boastful, arrogant, rude, insistent, irritable, resentful, pessimistic, cynical, sad and stressed out. Thus, if we are seeking repentance, (working on loving God) and looking to strengthen relationships (love our neighbor), then we use I Corinthians 13:4-8 as a checklist to evaluate both, and then we correct accordingly. Hold this list up against your faith and your behavior towards others.
Lord, through these few verses of St. Paul, You have given us a descriptive path in how to be like You, how to love like You, how to express love for You and how we are to love one another. Help me to remember this path in all my relationships today. Help me to be patient, kind, content, optimistic, and calm Help me to see myself as You see me, and to correct my thoughts and behaviors so that they come more into line with this description of love. Thank You Lord for Your patience, kindness and optimism towards me. May I reflect this back to You, and towards those I meet today. Amen.
If we stick the name of God in the place of love, we can see that He fits easily. If we stick our own name in the place of love, and in the place of God, does it fit there?
