A Prayer about Having Not Love

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 have not love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2

Loving Father, 

In this season of many weddings, 

we may often hear the passage on love 

from 1 Corinthians 13. 

As we do so, 

may we hear and apply it in its proper context.

First of all, the apostle Paul was chastising the Corinthian Christians 

for their overemphasis on spiritual gifts: 

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, 

but have not love, 

I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1). 

If we have powers to prophesy 

or power to do miracles 

but have not love, 

we are nothing. 

If we give away everything, 

even sacrificing our own bodies, 

but have not love 

then that is not love. 

Indeed, as we read and listen carefully, 

we realize that in and of ourselves, 

none of us “has love.” 

It is only in Jesus Christ, 

whose love never fails 

that we become 

“not nothing,” 

“something,” 

“someone” 

who loves, 

not with manmade love, 

and not even perfectly 

(until the day Christ returns), 

but often and well. 

We love out of the righteousness 

we have in Christ. 

We love because he first loved us. 

And we love as he loved us. 

When we commit one of the failures of love, 

being proud or boasting, 

keeping a record of wrongs, 

delighting in evil, 

we are convicted by the Holy Spirit in us, 

and we repent, 

saying we’re sorry, 

asking forgiveness, 

and praying for the Holy Spirit’s help 

that we might try to love again. 

In Jesus’ perfectly-loving name. Amen.

Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.