Wisdom and Love
The gift of wisdom lies in knowing that there is much you do not know, but that some day you will know it.
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. 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. 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. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 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. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 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. 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. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. - 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
What I knew of God as a child was that God was good but judgmental. God watched over us and loved us, but wanted us to be good or else.
The penalty for not being good was Hell. Literally.
That is not the view of God Paul shares with the people of the Church in Corinth. God is love. God gives more than receives, and the gifts of God are nothing compared to love.
Without love, we have nothing and we are nothing.
If we strive to be like God, to treat one another from love, we will eventually come to know God, and know ourselves as children of God.
The only thing we can give abundantly is love. There is no end to the supply we can draw upon, which makes us a lot like God.
We love having our heartstrings tugged. When we hear a story of a newborn struggling for life, we are touched as if that child is ours. When we hear of an elderly woman in need of food, we want to go and help.
It is our heart that pulls us toward one another and in the process, toward God.
So, the message is clear. Let love guide and wisdom will follow.
We will learn what is important in the world and in God's kingdom through love.
What else matters?
More to come...