Fresh Words of Love
Topics to Dig Into
It’s sometimes good to hear a fresh spin on a familiar passage. These are the words of Eugene Peterson from The Message.
1
Corinthians 13:1-10 (MSG) – The Way of Love
If I speak with human eloquence and
angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God’s Word with power,
revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have
faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m
nothing.
If I give everything I own to the
poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve
gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m
bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies. Inspired speech
will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach
its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is
always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be
canceled.