My thoughts on Valentine's Day turn to love as do most average human beings. And I immediately think of the Apostle Paul's ex- cellent writing on the subject. Who has ever improved on the topic?
Paul wrote these beautiful words many years ago, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of proph- ecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all my possessions to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."
And then I think this is the very best difinition of love of all time.
Paul continues, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
Can you find a better definiion? I don't think so! And the Apostle then expands on it. "Love never fails. But where there prophec- ies, they will cease; where are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disap- pears. 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 childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor 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."
And then Paul caps off his passage with, "And now these things remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
(The italics are mine) I Corinthians 13 [NIV]
Can you improve on that difinition? I don't think so. Have you found anyone else who has? Please let me know for I have never discovered it.
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