sharing a blibical view of love cove
with eugene peterson paraphasing 1 corinthians 13: 1-8
“if i speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love
i’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate”

“if i speak God’s Word with powerful sway,
revealing all His mysteries and making everything plain as day,
and if i have faith that says to a mountain, “jump,” and it jumps,
but i don’t love, i’m nothing”, eugene sums

“if i give everything i own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr,
but i don’t love, i’ve gotten nowhere”, true satire attire.
so, no matter what i say, what i believe, and what i do,
i’m bankrupt without love dew.

love never gives up
love cares more for others than for self.
love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
love doesn’t strut,
doesn’t have a swelled head,
doesn’t force itself on others,
isn’t always “me first,”
doesn’t fly off the handle,
doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
doesn’t revel when others grovel,
takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
puts up with anything,
trusts God always,
always looks for the best,
never looks back,
but keeps going to the end.
love never dies.

corinthians 13: 1-3 rankles
though i speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
and have not charity,
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 charity, 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 charity,
it profiteth me nothing

so on this declaration of independence day
if we have freedom and hath not responsibility at bay
and have not the grounding of God’s wisdom and love
we have nothing unless in Him to one another in love we serve