becoming

I don’t normally do this, but I think it is too good to just refer you to a URL. So here is Byron’s entertaining (yet timely) translation of 1 Cor. 13:

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A reflection on 1 Corinthians 13.1-3

You might have the impressive verbal gifts that the Christians in ancient Corinth loved: you might be eloquent and persuasive, funny and entertaining; you might speak English at home, Italian in the marketplace, Lithuanian on the dance-floor and Mandarin at press conferences; you might even speak as the angels do – but without love, you’re a dog barking at 3 am, a stereo turned up to eleven while waiting at the lights. Without love, you’re just a noise filling the airwaves.

You might have the gifts of knowledge and communication that the apostle Paul seemed to love: you might write the book that answers all our questions about God; you might get invited to speak at conferences in front of hundreds; your blog might be read by thousands from around the world and get links from Faith and Theology – but without love, you’re a zero.

Or you might have the gifts that Jesus seems to have particularly loved: you might have so much faith that you can be a landscape developer all by yourself; you might give more money to poor than the tax office knows you have; you might sponsor a whole village full of starving children; you might risk your reputation or even your life for honouring Jesus – but without love, it’s all a waste of time.

Love is necessary. Cut love out of Christianity and we may as well pack up shop tomorrow. Without love, we’re just another peddler of dodgy goods in the spiritual marketplace. If we don’t or won’t love one another, then let’s sleep in on Sunday mornings, or take the kids to sport, or go to that family event. If God doesn’t actually love us, if we don’t really care about the person next to us, our gatherings, our prayers, our songs, our reading, our silence, our proclamation, our lives and deaths are pointless.

Love is crucial.