Today's Scripture
The Ice Cream Man – 1 Corinthians 13: 1 – 13
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
RJ's Devotion
What the passage says
V. 1-3 Even though one might have supernatural powers and perform wonders of the Lord if they do not have love, we will find no significance in the gifts.
V. 4-7 Paul describes what true love should look like.
V. 8-13 There will be a time where all the other wonders come to an end. However, love is everlasting.
What does the passage mean to me/us?
“Love never ends” (v. 8, NRSV).
As I read this famous chapter of the Bible, these three words are stuck in my heart.
It means that I am still yet to fully understand God’s love. God’s love is deeper than we can ever imagine. We will only understand the full depth of the love when we see God face to face.
On the other hand, it challenges us to be a student of the “love [that] never ends.”
As people of God, who received and accepted the love, we are to practice God’s love in the world.
Sometimes, the task seems to be too big for us when we say that we need to love the world.
Let’s start with our family. Did I really practice that love with my family, yesterday?
As a matter of fact, I tried to practice that but failed to fully love them. The more I understand love, the harder it seems to be.
In one way, it is a challenge that motivates me, but at the same time, it reveals that I can’t do it myself.
Therefore, we come to the Lord. Therefore we ask for the help of the Holy Spirit.
Prayer
Lord, apart from you, we cannot love. Pour out your love on us today, so we may be able to love others, with your help. Embrace us in our spirit, and walk with us, as we share your love with the world.
In Christ Name, we pray, AMEN
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