A QUESTION OF FAITH
With Malcolm Clarke of the Vine Coffee and Book Shop in The Borough “LOVE has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.” (The Bible; 1 Corinthians 13 J B Phillips translation)
I can still remember how I felt when I first heard this in the 1960s read out loud. I’d never heard anything like it before! The `old` Bible that I was sort of used to, spoke about `charity` not `love` and frankly I couldn’t make head or tail of it. Charity for me was something for nothing. Here in this Bible reading was a love that apparently cost someone everything.
Perhaps there were other Bibles in the house at that time. Certainly I have inherited The Family Bibles as life has unfolded. But I didn’t dust off any that might’ve been there on the shelves. I didn’t know, and truthfully I didn’t care either. But this reading “blew me away” and I went out and bought a J B Philips New Testament soon after, which I still have to this day, and I began to read.
Turns out that “the someone” for whom love cost everything was, is, Jesus, and that He then becomes the template upon which the rest of this chapter in the Bible, quoted above, is based. We are called to love because He loved us first, and we are not at liberty to redefine `love` to suit ourselves. He defines it in His life, death and resurrection and we are to express it to others as He expresses it to us. Not possible of course by personal effort alone no matter how hard we may try. But by building a relationship with Him, by faith, it becomes increasingly `do-able` for Him to shape and mould us to become more and more like Himself. Today of course is also Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, the beginning of the journey that will take us up to Good Friday “Love so amazing, so divine” and to the Town Centre Walk of Witness of the Churches; and after that, on towards Easter Day.
Love is a primary essential for Christians. No two ways about it. None of us is perfect and if you are looking for someone who falls short there are examples two a penny. Look in the mirror too. Nevertheless it is what Jesus calls us to, there in black and white in 1 Corinthians 13, and whenever you come across someone who lives it out, however imperfectly , it is a breath-taking and wonderful experience.
Happy Valentine’s Day! God bless you on your Lent journey to the cross of Christ! For as the Bible says “In this life we have three great lasting qualities— faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love”.