Face To Face
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. 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. If I give all I possess to the poor and give
over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain
nothing.
Love is patient, love
is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not
dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
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. For we know in part
and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part
disappears. 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. 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.
And now these three
remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1
Corinthians 13:1-13
We need to learn to
give others believers the benefit of the doubt. We are charged as Christians to
do that. That does not mean we have to accept everything we see and hear, but
just to accept, with wisdom, what is being said and done.
When we hear
something bad about others, don’t believe what you hear. Talk to the person,
Get face to face with them, then decide whether you
believe God is telling you to trust them.
Stop before you
judge. Love is not deceived, but it is always ready to give the benefit of the
doubt.
Love
gives others the benefit of the doubt.
Our Daily Bread –