Love Is All

First Corinthians 13: 1 - 13

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. 2 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. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly,[b] but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

So much noise.

So much of religion designed to inflame hatred and inspire intolerance.

But strip it away, and what is it supposed to be at its very heart?

Love.

Whenever there's any confusion, whenever there's any doubt, choose love.

If you ever use the bible to justify prejudice or exclusion, you're doing it wrong.

If you value borders and the nation-state over love and compassion, you're doing it wrong.

If you spend your time smugly thinking you're making it to the afterlife and others aren't, you're doing it wrong.

If you confuse dominance and patriarchy and sexual control with love, you're doing it wrong.

If you're more worried about bootstraps and handouts than you are about lifting up and extending yourself as the hands and feet of Christ, you're doing it wrong.

Love is the greatest.  Love is the key.  Love is the guide.

Always