Lenten Meditation: March 16, 2024
Daily Scripture Passage: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
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. — 1 Corinthians 13:4-6
One of the most famous passages of scripture! A passage so familiar, and so synonymous with weddings, I would not be surprised if most people do not listen to it too closely. Love is patient, love is kind, mazel tov. Of course, this passage is not about human beings’ love for each other, but about God’s love for all of us.
To put a familiar piece of scripture in its less familiar context—the Christian community at Corinth was planning for anything but a wedding. Paul is writing to people who are deeply at odds with each other, arguing with each other, consumed by petty jealousies and disagreements about practice. In the previous chapter, Paul explains spiritual gifts, that the church is like one body with many members. Just like a body cannot decide it would be fine carrying on without an eye or a foot, no member of the community can decide another person has no purpose. God has given gifts to all of us. Then comes today’s reading, this meditation on love.
It helps me to remember these words were written to a community in conflict. They are meant to be an instruction, a teaching the Corinthians need to learn to live by in order to flourish, to really be in relationship with God and each other. Yes, God’s love never ends—but we can get in its way.
It is worth spending some time today pondering the virtues of love; what it truly means to be patient and kind, to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things—and endure them, too.