Footsteps #140

Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.11… 12Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity… 13Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. Read 1Cor13:9-13NLT. 

It is all too easy to allow Paul’s lofty words on life to miss their mark. He is interested in God’s eternal love, as expressed in Jesus Christ, actuating our everyday interaction with others.  With the aid of the Holy Spirit, we must apply these words to our lives today. 1Cor.13 is not just to be enjoyed in quiet moments of contemplation.  It is to be lived out in the hustle and bustle of life, amid the mix of demanding children, dirty dishes, busy offices, classrooms, building sites, and everyday life, wherever that may find us. Without love, we become clashing cymbals, without love our loftiest professions are hollow and insincere.  Our love can bear, believe, hope, and endure because Christ has borne, believed, hoped, and endured for us. His love makes us love; love bought us, sought us, and brought us to the Saviour’s feet, and it shall henceforth constrain us to deeds which otherwise would be impossible. May the Lord of love look into your eyes with those eyes which once were red with weeping over human sin: may he touch your hands with those hands that were nailed to the cross, and impress the blessed nail-marks upon your feet, and then may He pierce your heart till it pours forth a life for love, and flow out in streams of kind desires, and generous deeds, and holy sacrifices for God and for his people.  

I remind myself, that had Paul not had problems with the church at Corinth, we would not have the 2 letters that he wrote to them, where he outlined not only the solutions to the problems they were struggling with but also his systematic discussion on spiritual gifts and the resurrection.