Spiritually Speaking
Love never ends
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December 7, 2018
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (NIV)
“Love never ends.” In a fallen world, that massive claim seems almost ridiculous. Day by day, people of the planet declare their unending love for one another and day after day those same people struggle to hold their love together. Broken homes, shattered relationships, distrust and loneliness follow in their wake. (Wow, Jay – don’t be such a Debbie downer!) We all know it’s true. No wonder the church at Corinth was so happy to show off their spiritual blessings. In the short term, speaking in tongues and unlocking spiritual secrets seems so concrete – so tangible – when compared to what we know of love. But that’s just human love. The love of which Paul speaks is not a temporary, emotionally driven experience; but an everlasting, eternal reality.
Paul compares the spiritual giftedness of the Corinthian congregation to childhood. One certainly enjoys the freedom and excitement of being young, but growing up is both unavoidable and desirable. In the infancy of the church, miraculous outpourings and special spiritual abilities were needed to draw attention to the truth being taught, the truth of the Love of God in Christ Jesus. The moment those “gifts” began to separate folks, instead of bringing them together, the love they were designed to display was sent to the back of the bus.
Paul assured the Corinthians (and subsequent readers of this missive) that the only abiding experience – the only eternal link in the Christian trilogy of faith, hope, and love – is the one that draws us together. Love never ends.
See you Sunday.
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