Variations on a pauline promise
My apologies to those of you for whom this is not comfortable. At the moment, I have decided to do this, to expand upon a glorious truth that I'm still learning about. Variations on 1 Corinthians 13;
Though I speak with words that command the mind, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I give of myself to the multitudes, even for you, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. And if I bear the brunt of a thousand cruel remarks for you, but have not love, I am common. And if I stand in your defense as a closest friend, and if I hold my tongue to spare you the pain of the truth, and do all things for you, but have no love, my effort is come to naught.
But I do love.
And so I shall take long and kind suffering on myself. I shall not rise up with envy, shall not parade myself or be puffed up. I shall not behave rudely to you, or seek for my own advantage at your expense. I shall not be provoked to rashness toward you, nor shall I be capable, with a bone in my body, to think evil of you. I shall not rejoice in injustice, neither yours nor any man’s, for I shall rejoice with you in truth. I shall bare the burden of all things, grant and believe to give the benefit of the doubt; I shall share your hopes, and endure all things for and of you.
And it is then my firmest conviction that such a love lived cannot fail. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but as I become a man, I put away childish things. It is my conviction that there is no force on this earth which shall overcome the force of a love so lived.
Now, a couple of points; I don't understand what love is enough to stand behind the promises, the absolute submission that these words condone. But I want to. This is how I perceive that it's supposed to work. The idea of divine love working this way and human love being a pale imitation isn't far from my mind either. But this is the promise that I see in these words, and I assume that someday, writing wedding vows or something, that this is what I will want to say.
On the other hand, it's a refreshing course of thought in a mildly stormy hour.
BB
Though I speak with words that command the mind, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I give of myself to the multitudes, even for you, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. And if I bear the brunt of a thousand cruel remarks for you, but have not love, I am common. And if I stand in your defense as a closest friend, and if I hold my tongue to spare you the pain of the truth, and do all things for you, but have no love, my effort is come to naught.
But I do love.
And so I shall take long and kind suffering on myself. I shall not rise up with envy, shall not parade myself or be puffed up. I shall not behave rudely to you, or seek for my own advantage at your expense. I shall not be provoked to rashness toward you, nor shall I be capable, with a bone in my body, to think evil of you. I shall not rejoice in injustice, neither yours nor any man’s, for I shall rejoice with you in truth. I shall bare the burden of all things, grant and believe to give the benefit of the doubt; I shall share your hopes, and endure all things for and of you.
And it is then my firmest conviction that such a love lived cannot fail. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but as I become a man, I put away childish things. It is my conviction that there is no force on this earth which shall overcome the force of a love so lived.
Now, a couple of points; I don't understand what love is enough to stand behind the promises, the absolute submission that these words condone. But I want to. This is how I perceive that it's supposed to work. The idea of divine love working this way and human love being a pale imitation isn't far from my mind either. But this is the promise that I see in these words, and I assume that someday, writing wedding vows or something, that this is what I will want to say.
On the other hand, it's a refreshing course of thought in a mildly stormy hour.
BB