The Definition of Love

Dear Reader,

Sometimes, when we hear the same thing said over and over, we can remember the words and forget the meaning. For me, this often happens with particularly popular passages from the Bible. Usually, I read the NIV translation, but this summer I am reading through a translation of the New Testament by JB Phillips. I particularly like his translation of 1 Corinthians 13 - the Love Chapter - which is often read at weddings but is, in fact, applicable to any type of relationship, even our relationship to ourselves. And so I thought to share it with you.

With Love,
~~ LeAn

This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience - it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance.

Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not compile statistics of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when Truth prevails.

Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope: it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.

...At present all we see is the baffling reflection of reality; we are like men looking at a landscape in a small mirror. The time will come when we shall see reality whole and face to face! At present all I know is a little fraction of the truth, but the time will come when I shall know it as fully as God now knows me!

In this life we have three great lasting qualities - faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love.

~~ Portions of 1 Corinthians 13 as translated by JB Phillips in Letters to Young Churches

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