Bible Society of South Africa

40 DAYS – Time with God – Day 20

Enduring Love

by Pat Baxter

Bible text(s)

1 Corinthians 13

Love

1I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. 2I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains — but if I have no love, I am nothing. 3I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burnt — but if I have no love, this does me no good.

4Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; 5love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; 6love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. 7Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.

8Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass. 9For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial; 10but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.

11When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I have grown up, I have no more use for childish ways. 12What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete — as complete as God's knowledge of me.

13Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13GNBOpen in Bible reader

When we sometimes feel alone or weary, or the road seems tough, is it not wonderful to be reminded of real love? The love that Paul was talking about in Corinthians: ‘that bears all things, believes all things, endures all things.’

The picture of Jesus as bridegroom comes to mind. He is excited to woo you. He is joyful about the relationship. With Jesus as our bridegroom, we can expect as a Church to have an extraordinary lover: one who bears the pain and believes that God’s love can conquer all things. It is this Christ who can give us the experience of being completely alive, who can heighten every sense and fling us into the heavens. It is a kind of love that Brad Swieger, a contemporary writer, says: ‘Makes the ordinary extraordinary.’ Isn’t it wonderful to have such a lover to rely on? Isn’t it amazing to feel that we are not alone on this journey?

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