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Love Never Fails

             Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there 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 completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 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 the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a 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. (I Corinthians 13:8-12)

 

            Again, we seem to have a summary, this time to the last four verses. From “Love is patient” through “always perseveres,” Paul was saying that love never fails, but he also uses it as an introduction to another thought – a conclusion to the argument that our doing all those spectacular works but not having love makes the deeds worthless.  This time, he focuses on tongues and prophecy/knowledge.

 

I Corinthians 13:1-4

I Corinthians 13:8-12

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

where there are tongues, they will be stilled

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,

But where there are prophecies, they will cease

where there is knowledge, it will pass away

and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

 

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 

 

            After saying these things, he changes his approach. When we are children, we talk, think, and reason like children. When we grow up, we put those childish ways away. Spiritually, we now talk, think, and reason like spiritual children. Someday, that will pass away, to be replaced by mature spiritual insight and knowledge. And while he doesn’t say so specifically, it’s reasonable to at least consider the possibility that what makes mature spiritual thinking mature is love. 

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