Greatness

Brothers and sisters: Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. 

If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 12:31 – 13:13)

Too many people are without love.  No one loves them.  There is nothing more crippling than to pass through life without knowing we were loved – deep and abiding.  As St. Paul said, “If I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”  

Many will deny this opinion and insist love can be secondary to financial success and comfort – to prestige and power.  They deny the truth although if they were denied love during childhood and adolescence, then they were spiritually wounded, and their denial is understandable.  Children must be loved.  The alternative is tragic.

Paul also said, “When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.”  Perhaps that’s part of our problem as adults.  We put aside childish things.  When we lose the child within, we tend to forget about God – we lose the innocence and acceptance of that which is far larger than our individual selves.

Paul made the case: “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” According to one anonymous author, “Perhaps love is the greatest gift because faith and hope benefit the possessor, but love always benefits another. Love always requires an ‘other’ as an object; love cannot remain within itself, and that is part of what makes love the greatest gift.

Love is core to God’s character and central to the Christian life. The law of Christ is to love God and love others. Love infuses all that God does and should infuse all that we do. ‘Love never fails,’ and it will never cease. Because of this, love is greater than even hope and faith.” 

The simple message is for us to seek greatness not in power, privilege, and possessions, but through love.

Deacon David Pierce