IF I LIVE WITHOUT LOVE

I Love You

1 Corinthians Chapter 13

What if I speak in the most elegant languages of people or in the exotic languages of the heavenly messengers, but I live without love?

Well then, anything I say is like the clanging of brass or a crashing cymbal. 

What if I have the gift of prophecy, am blessed with knowledge and insight to all the mysteries, or

what if my faith is strong enough to scoop a mountain from its bedrock, yet I live without love?

If so, I am nothing.  

I could give all that I have to feed the poor, I could surrender my body to be burned as a martyr, but

if I do not live in love, I gain nothing by my selfless acts.  

Love is patient; love is kind. Love isn’t envious, doesn’t boast, brag, or strut about. 

There’s no arrogance in love; it’s never rude, crude, or indecent—

it’s not self-absorbed. Love isn’t easily upset. Love doesn’t tally wrongs  

or celebrate injustice; but truth—yes, truth—is love’s delight!  

Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along; it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what. 

Love will never become obsolete.

Now as for the prophetic gifts, they will not last; unknown languages will become silent,

and the gift of knowledge will no longer be needed.  

Gifts of knowledge and prophecy are partial at best, at least for now,  

but when the perfection and fullness of God’s kingdom arrive, all the parts will end. 

When I was a child, I spoke, thought, and reasoned in childlike ways as we all do. 

But when I became a man, I left my childish ways behind. 

 For now, we can only see a dim and blurry picture of things, as when we stare into polished metal.

I realize that everything I know is only part of the big picture. But one day, 

when Jesus arrives, we will see clearly, face-to-face.

In that day, I will fully know just as I have been wholly known by God.  

But now faith, hope, and love remain; these three virtues must characterize our lives. The greatest of these is love.

The Voice Bible – a modern language translation developed by Thomas Nelson and the Ecclesia Bible Society.

ART: LJ Austin "What Is Seen" 2017