Devotion - Monday, November 2

I commented last week on I Corinthians 13. Today’s appointed readings include those famous words about love. Paul ends the section by saying, “So faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Believing that Paul is speaking of something more than a limited understanding of love, i.e. the love between two persons entering a life-long relationship, it seems that there is something for us to learn here. If love is so important (one could ask how it can be more important that faith; or more life-altering than hope,) if love is so important then it must be something intended to lead all of our interactions and thoughts toward others.

Two applications come to mind:

First, for the past couple of weeks, our Sunday Church School class has discussed finding that which is “true” among the teachings of other world religions. We are reading a book, and the author recounts how Paul would find what was true in the pagan religions of his day, then open that kernel of truth in order to expose Christ. How might we do that today? It changes our attitude toward those who practice other faiths if we begin with an assumption of opportunity to find kernels of truth among their teachings. It alters how we deal with them if we approach with love.

The second application also involves a bit of controversy. Our denomination is embroiled in the debate of acceptable expressions of human sexuality. Action taken at our most recent Assembly, opens the way for congregations which choose to do so to recognize, honor, and hold publicly accountable persons in lifelong monogamous same-gender relationships. The action also allows those congregations who choose to do so to call as pastor persons in such relationships. Some of our congregations are upset by this. They are angry. They say they cannot accept, and love such persons. The irony is the love that “such persons” has shown within our congregations. The experience of many members of Christ’s church is that those in committed, same-gender relationships have shown us care and compassion; attending to the sick and praying with the dying. These persons, so full of love, are being looked upon by some as unlovable.

Far from advocating an “anything goes” policy, it seems that in I Corinthians 13 Paul is lifting up the ability and the willingness to love as a plumb line for what it means to follow Christ. Maybe we need to read this chapter as something more than a beautiful wedding text and come to see it as instruction for every day of our lives. If Paul is going to say that love is more enduring that faith, he must have a high regard for it. If he is going to lift it over hope, he must see it as a tremendous force.