4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
This is one of those passages that many people grow up knowing and quoting. I remember having to memorize it in Sunday School as a child. I have since heard it countless times, reiterated zealously by pastors from the pulpits on a Sunday morning, or uttered during wedding ceremonies as a declaration of the promises that a bride and groom are making to one another.
It was no wonder then, that I applied this passage to my understanding of agape - God's love for humanity - and eros, romantic love. Yes, it also carries a lot of truth that can be applied very generally, so I did my best to be patient, kind, and so on, in order to be "loving" to other people. But in retrospect it was always one of those passages for me that sounded very nice but honestly didn't bear much weight.
But more recently I began to take this little gem and look at it back in its context. The bit that precedes it says:
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy 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. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
The logical question that follows is, What is love? See v.4-7.
And to what effect?
8Love never fails.
Love then, is not just what we ought to have for one other because it's 'nice'. It is necessary. It is everything.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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