“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
I Corinthians 13:1-3
What a different perspective the Apostle Paul had! In his letter to the members of the church in Corinth, Greece, he laid it out. He wrote that it didn’t matter how sophisticated they were, how much they achieved intellectually and spiritually, how much good they did, or even whether they became literal martyrs. He avowed that none of that amounted to a hill of beans. That must have been quite a jolt to citizens of a locale that had valued all of those things for centuries. What really mattered he maintained was whether or not you got it that you are one in spirit with everybody else. That’s what he meant by love.
Love is a spiritual power. It has nothing to do with whether or not you like somebody, or whether you agree with them, or whether you approve of them. Love is simply the Truth that you are of the very same life as them. Knowing that changes everything. The more we realize that the less interested we become in superficial opinions about others. Instead, we get really interested in how we can respectfully support our spiritual siblings in shining their light. We even stop thinking we should try to rescue them or give them “good” advice. We see the light in them and validate it, affirm it in prayer, and support it through active interest in them. We have lots of compassion – meaning respectful kind-heartedness. We respect them enough not to try to do for them what is theirs to do, and to do for them what only we can do. We see the divine in them, knowing that it guides and protects them.
And finally, we hold that same understanding for ourselves – we too are expressions of God. We too get to feel the sweet oneness with good, with fulfillment, with joy, that is ours. God is love, we are love, and we live in a world of love. Now that is an uplifting perspective! Thank you, Apostle Paul for your great insight.
In the Love and Light of the Christ,
Rev. Anna
