495 : The More Excellent Way
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love,
I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and the understanding of mysteries,
and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and
have not love, I am nothing.
And though I give all my goods to feed the poor,
and though my body to be burned and have not love, it profits me nothing.
Love suffers long, and is kind, love envies not; love boasts not,
is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own,
is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; rejoices not in wickedness but rejoices in the truth;
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
"Love never fails.
But where there are prophecies, they shall fail;
where there are tongues, they shall cease;
where there is knowledge, it shall vanish away.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.
But when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face.
Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.
"And now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
THE LETTER OF CHRIST
"Do we begin to commend ourselves again?
Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you,
or letters of commendation from you?
You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men.
For you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us,
written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God,
not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves.
But our sufficiency is of God who has made us able ministers of the new testament,
not of the letter, but of the spirit.
For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.
Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
"Finally, brethren, farewell.
Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace shall be with you."
( Link to free online Bible to view where this event takes place in the Bible )
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