Shadows and Substance

If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and have all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I receive no benefit.

Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered, or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside. For we know in part, and we prophecy in part, but when what is perfect comes, the partial will be set aside. When I was a child, I talked like a child. But when I became an adult, I set aside childish ways. For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
-Paul the Apostle

Context, context, context. One would think that in the evangelical culture, with its emphasis on the true meaning of the Scriptures that a passage such as this would receive different attention than it receives. How often do we hear this in the context of marriage, or romance in a broader sense?

The Corinthians were as difficult a bunch of believers as one could imagine. Immaturity, infighting, and boasting of despicable sins characterized their reputation. "It is reported that sexual immorality exists among you, the kind of immorality that is not permitted even among the Gentiles, so that someone is cohabiting with his father's wife. And you are proud! Shouldn't you have been deeply sorrowful instead...?"

Each one, wanting to be better than the man beside him in church. You speak in tongues? Well so do I! You have knowledge and wisdom? I have more! Paul explains to them the wonder of diverse gifts within the church - this one teaches, that one speaks tongues, another heals and speaks phophecies. God works this all into a tapestry, a living body made up of individual parts.

He brings us this passage as a light to the "more excellent way" for the Church to interact. This passage ought to be at the front of our hearts as we interact with our fellow believers. To defer or limit this passage to the world of candy hearts and flowers is a great injustice. It excuses us from the unity we are meant to have with each other, from the commitment to the Body we are called to have.

Granted, I'm not a huge fan of romance right now, bad experiences and all. But if love is something we associate primarily with romance, I believe we are running the wrong way. In our culture we place such a high value on such relationships that love is distorted into something it is not, weakened and shrivelled into a shell of itself. The Church is the Bride of Christ, but it is also so much more! We are the Body of Christ, a holy temple acting as His very emmisaries on earth, a living monument to His glory. We are the branches of Christ, drawing life from the Author of Life to distribute the fruit of His grace to the world. We are the light of the world and the salt of the earth, fueled by His Spirit to season and illuminate a drab world. We are co-heirs with Christ, adopted into the family of the Almighty. We are the children of God, we are ambassadors for the King, we are the Church against whom the very gates of Hell cannot stand!

That we are the Bride of Christ is a way of expressing the fiercely tender affection of our Lord. The jealous protection of His hand. But our marriage-centric worldview cant make us forget that the love we are called to is so much more than finding our "soulmate." Our love for one another in the church is our mark. It is that which should distinguish us from all others. A church without a passionate love flowing through the body is a church not worth attending. Our knowledge is but partial, but love is eternal. Someday we will see clearly, no longer as in a cloudy mirror.

No longer do I tolerate the half-hearted love I have allowed myself to be limited to. Love is hard. I can be rude, easily angered, envious, self-seeking, resentful, boastful, impatient, boastful, and proud-believing nothing, abandoning hope, and collapsing under pressure. My "love" is too often a sham, a utilitarian tit-for-tat. Such love is a lie, and a poison.

C.S. Lewis has said that the problem with our passions is that they are too weak, not too strong. We content ourselves with playing in the mud in the yard when we are called to a vacation on the beach. The quest to find love in a single person is such a weak passion for me - a shadow substituted for the substance of all we are meant to be. I want more; the overflowing cup I have been promised instead of the beggar's portion I had asked to content myself with.