God's love

Paul wrote a whole chapter on love. His motivation for writing this timeless portion of literature can be inferred from where he placed it in his letter to the Corinthians. The chapter before and the one after it both deal with spiritual gifts. He wanted to make the point that good works without love have neither meaning nor value.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 can have a rather depressing effect on the reader. It seems remote from the human experience and impossible to attain to. I used to lump it together with "be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect" and "love your neighbour as yourself" (Matthew 5:48; 22:39).

Lately I have come to see these four verses in another light. God is personified by love. His love for me is therefore demonstrated by 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. That is a thought worth meditating on.