"When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known."
How does this relate to the rest of chapter? At an initial glace it may seem totally random and out of place. The first ten verses and the last verse are about love. This passage is very often used at weddings but the love Paul refers to here is so much more than a human emotion that a husband and wife show to each other.
The love that we read about is so much more than the love we as people have for one another. This love is the love that we are to have for God, but more importantly it is the love that God has for us! Think about it,
"Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away" (verses 4-8).
All of those are things God shows to us and it is so awesome that he does, where would we be if he didn't? If he wasn't patient or kind? If he was provoked and took our sins into account? If his love didn't endure when we didn't accept or appreciate it, where would we be? This is the love that God has for us, and it is the model of the love we are to have for him and each other.
But the two verses I mentioned, eleven and twelve, look at them in relation to love, since that is the context they fall in. When I was a child the word love was one that was used so freely, and in some cases it still is. As a little boy, "I love Batman." "I love the Cleveland Indians." "I love ..." Even as I grew older and used the word towards a girl I dated, I never got it. My love was immature. As it says, I spoke, thought, and reasoned as a child would, and my love for God was the same way. But then my life changed, I became a man, and my ability to understand and show love changed.
I understand what it is to love another person, and even though I've never been able to say it to her except on paper in letters I haven't sent, I understand it. My love for, and understanding of, God has increased, and I've come to further understand his heart, due to things I've experienced with this girl.
But even though I have come to this deeper understanding and my love isn't childish and immature, my love is still incomplete, as is my ability to fully comprehend it. I see and know only in part, but one day I will fully know it, I will fully be able to love when I see love face to face. "God is love" (1 John 4.8b).
I will know love as God has loved me, and I will finally be able to love him as he loves me. And this is the most important part, not that I partially love God now, and one day will be able to fully love him, it isn't about my ability to love at all, it isn't that I have chosen to give that love to God. The most important part is that I have been loved by God. God loves me, and that is the only thing that matters at all. And one day I will fully be able to grasp that love when I look Love in the eye, face to face.
Peace be with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment