Skip to main content

One and Four

             Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (I Corinthians 13:6-7)

 

            Here, Paul breaks the pattern he began in yesterday’s passage. We should have a sentence with five characteristics, followed by a sentence with six. Instead, we have a sentence with two, and another sentence with four. The other pattern that might be worth noticing is that Paul began yesterday’s passage with the word Love, but uses the pronoun it for the rest of what he wrote. But today’s passage again begins with Love. That suggests that each time he uses the word Love, he is beginning a new thought. So, love is not about having power over, but about sharing power and using power for the good of others.

            And now, love is about truth. In Ephesians, Paul describes truth as the belt that holds up one’s clothes, serves as a place to keep one’s tools and weapons, and protects one’s bowels (the seat of emotion.) What good would a belt be if it didn’t protect the bowels? If the buckle released? If one’s clothes keep falling down and getting in the way? If it didn’t always do all the things a belt is supposed to do? The belt isn’t love, but the same could be said of it. What sort of love is it that deals in deception, doesn’t protect, doesn’t trust, doesn’t hope, or doesn’t persevere? In a sense, the break in Paul’s pattern isn’t that he does two, three, four, one, four. It’s that two, three, and four are each stated in one sentence, while five is broken into two sentences. Where two, three, and four are about power, five (or one and four) is about reality or truth.

        The other noteworthy item in today's passage is the repetition of always. Power may wax and wane. Truth does not. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more