Good Vibrations

...Which actually means good motivation. Somebody was talking about 1 Corinthians 13 in church on Sunday. It is one of my very favorite sections of scripture.

I think that verses 1-7 utilize various techniques to help the reader understand how important charity is. Paul uses comparisons to other qualities that he expects we already esteem as highly important or of highest importance, and declares charity greater. He uses strong hyperbole, saying that even carrying these other characteristics but without charity one would be "nothing," like smoke that rises just to vanish away. In verses 4-7, Paul also describes people who exercise perfect charity, to help the reader further understand how broad its effect will be in promoting good within a person.

Verses 8-13 explain why charity is the most important quality, using various metaphors to represent our obscured understanding of an eternally sound list of priorities, and promising that when we pass onto the other side, our vision will be as crystal, and we will see that in fact charity is the greatest of all the virtues.

9) "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part."
Paul generously and honestly includes himself in the group of people affected by temporarily impaired understanding of what things really matter.

10) "But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away."
When we pass beyond this difficult and confusing world of opposing forces and mixed messages, when that which is perfect has been given to us, Eternal Life and the presence of the Father and the Son, it will be clear like day and night what qualities make Them who They are. We will understand simply and fully that it is not strength, resource, or any other quality esteemed by men that made God and Jesus the beings we so love, but it is in fact their love. "We love [them] because [they] first loved us." (1 John 4:19) If we have spent our lives developing qualities or treasures other than those Jesus taught, they will be of little importance, and will not be cherished in the life to come.

11) "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
If we choose to follow Jesus, we will do it in our love for God and others, in our generosity, our unconquerable hope, and our determination to the end, because that is what He asks, and that is what He did. He was the "model of modest nobility" (Pres. Uchtdorf, 2008 Christmas Devotional). With this sure understanding, obtained by faith, let us now put away the things we know will not help us follow him, and embrace the goodness of the path he has prescribed.

12) "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."
Paul reminds us that our short understanding of eternally important things will not last forever. The last phrase could even mean that we will remember and know our Father in Heaven as well as he knows us now.

13) "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."
Even among Godly virtues, it is love for others that brings us closest to God. "Love is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the pathway of discipleship" (Joseph B. Wirthlin).

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One simple reason that I like this chapter is because of how much I feel like I grow in understanding of God and His characteristics as I read it.

And now back to the motivation part: If I were to try to live the Gospel by making a list of all the things Jesus did when he was on the earth and trying to mimic a Christian lifestyle, it would be hopeless. But is I can understand the qualities that motivated His actions, and work to adopt those qualities through the way that I live, I will feel a desire to make choices like He did.