Opus 2011-142, Key Scriptures: The Love Chapter, part 1

Years ago I was working in Sequoia National Park for the summer on the maintenance crew.  I was placed by Christian Ministries in the National Parks.  I worked a regular job five and a half days a week and lead worship in the campsites on Sundays.  I was a Vietnam veteran and in my second year of seminary.  I was working and living in a sub-culture based on college students away from home for the summer.  To say the least, it was interesting.

One day we were putting a new coating of sticky black stuff on a roof and one of the guys had to show me this tremendous love note that his latest heart throb had written him.  It began, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love...” 

In case you don’t recognize that, it comes from the Bible.  It is the beginning of I Corinthians 13, which is called the “Love Chapter.”  If you are someone who has never read it that probably also means you don’t have Bible handy.  Let me reproduce it for you from the King James Version.  Remember that the word “charity” is now translated “love.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 KJV
(1)  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
(2)  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
(3)  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
(4)  Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
(5)  Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
(6)  Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
(7)  Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
(8)  Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
(9)  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
(10)  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
(11)  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
(12)  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
(13)  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Read it over and enjoy the message that God is trying to get across to us.

homo unius libri