1 Corinthians 13

1 If I speak in human or angelic tongues, 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.

I’m performing a wedding this weekend and the ceremony is thematically centered around Paul’s description of love from 1 Corinthians 13. So I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting on this great text. Lately, as I’ve been reading over it, the one word that keeps jumping out at me has been the word Paul uses 4 times in verse 7: “always”. This has led me to reflect on the eternal nature of God; how before there was anything at all, there was love, for love is the eternal relational quality of God. It is His character. Father, Son, and Spirit, three in one, all bound together in love. Love is the language spoken within that eternal relationship. And after everything is said and done, all that will be left will be love: the love that the Father has for His children, the love we feel for Him, and the love that unites our hearts together in relationship.

God’s love is truly patient, kind, and all the other things Paul says in 1 Cor. 13. But God’s love is also “always”. It’s constant. As the Psalms say, His love endures forever. It is the eternally binding principle, the one true reality.

Faith and hope are great, Paul says, but they take a back seat to love. “The greatest of these is love.” As important as faith is, faith eventually becomes sight. As essential as hope is in our present context, all our hopes will someday be fully realized when we see Him face to face. On that far distant shore, there will be no more use for faith, no more need for hope. But love, Paul says, is the greatest. Because love is eternal.

Love is all there is.

Always.