Fortress of Faith: Study Six- Foundation of Love

"1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13 v 1-13
Thank you for continuing this study with us!  We are slowly working our way through the "Love Chapter" as some have some to call 1 Corinthians 13.

This week, we are going to look at verses 8 through 10 which say:
  "8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears."

Let's start with the first part of verse 8.  Traditionally, that first part of verse 8 gets tied in with verses 4 through 7.   Which makes sense in so many ways.  However, when we read the way that it is written- the verse in its entirety, we see that it is part of the next group of verses in order to tie them in with a particular concept.

"Love never fails..."  Love, as in the love we receive from Christ- from our God, never fails.  It never ceases.  It never stops.  It never goes away.  The love we are shown from our God is lasting, eternal, unchanging....  Do we truly understand what this means?

The rest of verse 8, in addition to verses 9 and 10, explain this love.  This eternal love changes everything we thought we knew.  Those prophecies, in our case, those foretellings and forecasts into the climate of our world and our lives matter little in the face of God's love for us.  The barriers caused by cultural differences,  represented in "where there are tongues," will be torn down, so that the chaos of trying to understand each other will be stilled.  All the things we supposedly know, "where there is knowledge," change when His love is present.  

Then verse 9 continues: "For what we know in part and what we prophecy in part,"

Don't we struggle with not knowing?  In our jobs, our training never ends.  Even when we feel like we can honestly say we are an expert in something, we find that we have just tapped the tip of the iceberg.  In our relationships, we only really know bits and pieces of each other, and the not knowing the "whole story" ends up causing rifts and can sometimes tear us apart.   Even when we are in periods where we are teaching and leading (which I would equate with prophecy, because not many of us have the gift of prophecy these days), we find that we are easily set back on our heals when someone raises a question or a different perspective that proves to us that for all we know, we have only seen a tiny part of the picture.

But then verse 10 says: "but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears."

In other words, when we receive His love, and when we SHARE His love, as everything we knew suddenly turns upside down, we will be completed; all those holes in our beliefs, in our learning, and in our relationships will be filled!  When we feel His love, there is no halfway.  He loves us completely!  When we share His love, we bridge the gap that our old beliefs, our old knowledge, and our past failings could not span!  We become whole!

God's love for us, shown through His son, Jesus Christ, never fails!  God's unending love for us will turn our lives upside down as we suddenly see how imperfect our own concept of love is, and how broken our beliefs and knowledge is, and how that has affected our lives, our relationships, our homes, our families, and our friendships!  His perfect love for us turns everything upside down and then right side up filling in the gaps that we didn't even realize were missing.

What a huge comfort this is as we move through training for our Military career, as we prepare for the next promotion, or as we lead our troops in training and mentorship.  What a huge comfort as we prepare to deploy, leaving everything we know and love behind, while facing a period of expected danger and unknown challenges.  What a huge comfort to us Veteran women who deal with the aftermath of military life, as we work to reintegrate ourselves into "regular" life, where the challenges are completely different.  What a huge comfort to we Military Wives as we face our hubbies deploying, or a PCS that uproots us from our current relationships forcing us to start over yet again with a completely new set of challenges!

Through all these challenges in Military life, His love for us never leaves us.  He never takes it back.  He never withholds it from us.  He never gives us just a piece of His love.   No, He gives us His love, every day completely!  We are never too far, never too bad, never too doubtful, never too frustrated for Him to cover us in His love.

God bless you, dear friends! 

Copyright © 2012 C.H.Borden