I'm Bankrupt Without Love

I was reading today from 1 Corinthians in The Message and the all too familiar words jumped out at me with new vigor. Tonight is the last Theology class that I am teaching, it's been a great time to revisit my own theology in different ways but the dialogue and discussion with the class has been invaluable to me. I have been convicted about my own emphasis of ecumenism, while at the same time rejoicing in the unity of the body of Christ, the church, as expressed most fully in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All too often we become distracted with theology, life, ministry, kids, family, career, _________ (you fill in the blank) that we forget that the sum of the whole is found in love. The love the Father has lavished on us and in turn the love that we show to all of humanity as we struggle together to make sense of this fallen world that still groans to be restored...the Christian hope is that there will come a day when all of creation will fully be redeemed as the new heaven and the new earth make their appearing, until then let us walk in humble love with one another in Christ and in loving service to the world around us.

1 Corinthians 13 (The Message)

The Way of Love
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

11When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.