1 Corinthians 13 | BIBLE PASSAGE of the week

My grandmother passed away last week. She was a remarkable lady, someone who assured us of God's promises, experienced His peace, shared His joy, and lived His love. Today on this blog, I have included a portion of the apostle Paul's letter to the Corinthian church—because my grandmother demonstrated this "1 Corinthians 13 love." We thank God for the blessing that she was in our lives, and we look forward to the day when we will see her again.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

"Live for something. Do good, and leave behind you a monument of virtue that the storms of time can never destroy. Write your name, by kindness, love, and mercy, on the hearts of the thousands you come in contact with year by year, and you will never be forgotten. No! Your name, your deeds, will be as legible on the hearts you leave behind, as the stars on the brow of evening."

John Harvey