Holy Curiosity: Church Stories

August 21: Church Stories - 1 Corinthians 13  - and the greatest of these is love…

Reflect

Love is patient, love is kind… This portion of the letter to the church at Corinth is perhaps the best known of all Paul’s writings and we are most used to hearing it read at weddings.  How do you hear these words differently when you know it was written to a congregation in conflict? 

Verses 8-13 suggest that we grow in wisdom and understanding as we grow older.

What is something in your faith that you understand better now than when you were younger?

What practices help you see God more clearly?

Connect

Have quotes from the Bible’s epistles ever been used to justify cruelty or injustice against

you or someone you love? How did that affect your view of the Bible? How did it affect your view of the apostle Paul?

What verse from this passage relates to what you think Christians need to hear right now?

Act

Take time to write a letter to your current church or to a church from your past. (You don’t have to deliver it!) Include your thoughts, praises, critiques, and observations about love and/or what 1 Corinthians 13 has taught you.  

Factoid/Digging Deeper

“Paul says the same of human knowledge about God, whether written by a theologian, proclaimed by the prophet, or acted out by the healer. Even though a person can have outward appearance of knowing God theologically, receiving God’s word prophetically, working God’s works miraculously, and saying the unsayable, if that one is puffed up with knowledge or self-important about her or his faith, then there can be no witness to the One who in love emptied himself.” -Cynthia A. Jarvis from the Connections Commentary Year C, Vol. 1

Music by AudioCoffee from Pixabay