Lyrical Riffs Imagine if St Paul had been given a Roman iPad with an autocorrect function programmed by that domineering Roman empire, 1 Corinthians 13 might have read a little differently…
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but don’t have love, what’s the problem? That doesn’t make me a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. I’m just being me. If 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 don’t have love, so what? I am great. I need not give anything to the poor or make sacrifices to hardship, that’s a waste of time, to care for others would mean I gain nothing. Who wants that?
Love is self-absorbed, love is unkind. It’s great at envy, and jolly good at boasting. It is proud, proud, PROUD. Oh yea! It does not respect others, it is purely self-seeking. It regularly gets annoyed, and keeps a meticulous record of wrongs. So don’t get on the wrong side of it. Love delights in evil and rejoices at fake truth. It protects itself, always mistrusts, always despairs, regularly gives up.
Love frequently fails. It lets you down. Better to judge and criticise others.
And so these three remain: cynicism, annoyance and them-and-us. And the greatest of these is them-and-us.
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However, this is 1 Corinthians 13 v 4-7 from The Message:
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
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