Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verses 1 through 8:
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends.
There is a line from "O Holy Night" I keep thinking of this morning: "His Law is Love and His Gospel is Peace."
The Law of Love is what allowed Joseph to reach out and embrace Mary and her son Jesus.
It is what allowed Jesus to renounce power, refuse to call down the angels to help, and accept his fate as the will of God.
It is what allows the merciful to extend mercy.
It is what allows the annoyed to extend grace.
It is what compels the just to fight for change.
It is what keeps us from giving up on our nation and -- sometimes more difficultly -- our neighbors.
Love believes.
Love bears.
Love endures.
Love wins.
Love always, in the end, wins.
So let us learn to love one another, even as God has loved us -- even as God has loved this whole, heartbreaking world.
For Love really is the end; and it is the way to the end also.
NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow's Lesson will come from 2 Corinthians chapters 1 through 4.
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