– The significance of the famous ‘love chapter’, ICorinthians 13-
ICorinthians 13 beautifully talks about the human journey into Love or Oneness; starting from the beginnings when one is lost in the world, through learning and practice, arriving to enlightenment where one sees ‘in parts’ no more but sees eternity.
13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
This passage talks about the very beginning of the journey when we only know the world. Our words and actions are empty because it has no aware consciousness just yet. It describes how our efforts are in vain until our thoughts and actions come from a place of Oneness.
The second passage gives meaning to LOVE and explains what it and how it is different from the ‘empty’ words and actions described in the previous passage. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”. Therefore, LOVE is Oneness with all and embracing it all without fail. To be in LOVE means to be centred in Divine Presence and following Divine Guidance in all matters. It is being a living example of the Truth.
In the third passage he talks about the final step, the arrival of our evolutionary journey in Spirit. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
As we grow in Spirit we leave behind the limitations of our childhood, the way we were brought up, the conditioning. It also means that when we start on our inner journey our understanding of Spirit is limited.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. As we walk the inner journey, we let go of our misconceptions, partial knowledge and beliefs that do not serve the Truth. At the end, all that “is in part disappears” and we are centered in LOVE.
12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
In Divine Presence, in Truth I am faced with my own eternity, and I can see myself and know myself fully in God as God.
