My Favorite Bible Passage

So, I took the summer off. Lots to do and all that. I didn't stop thinking. I just didn't write it down.

1 Corinthians 13

¹ If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹²For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

What if we look at it the other way? What's less important than love?

Speaking in tongues: not so important.

Prophesy: not so important.

Knowledge: not so important.

Faith: not so important.

Giving to the poor: not so important.

Enduring hardship: not so important.

It's not that these things are unimportant, not at all! But without love, they're... all... empty. Love must be the driving force behind what you do, or you're just making noise. And if your driving force is hatred - hatred of people different from yourself, of sinners, of gays, of politicians, of Muslims... - It can't be love.

If it's not... maybe it's time to have an honest talk with God and ask him to tell you why.