Love. Before proceeding with this love-themed chapter, we must explore and understand what love is and what it means to have love and to give love. We must understand the purpose of love, as well as the source.
Without projecting, creating and strengthening love we are a skeletal version of ourselves. The components of our bodies may scientifically explain the abilities of our body but without love, specifically giving love, we are dust... ash, unmoved even by the whim of the wind. The flow and beat of our lives is in giving ourselves over in service to compassion.
The love frequently spoken of in the world today is a selfish love; people require the person they are with to supply them with value, purpose and happiness. Yet, relying on someone to tell you that you are beautiful, valuable, and intelligent is not loving them, it's using them. Love, actual love, is selfless which is why you must love and respect yourself enough to not require it from any relationship. Love is enjoying to give love. Taking a happiness that already exists inside of yourself pushing it outward, and elevating it.
It is an arduous, analytical and personal journey to get to this point of understanding and especially this point of execution. However once achieved, one can truly understand purpose* and meaning in all things, including ourselves**.
Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians references actual love. Love as the intention and purity of the universe. It is understandable that the complexity of religion might deter a person from believing in divinity but it is not understandable to believe in a void... to believe that the earth is without intention. Since before even our own creation, there was creation in unfathomable corners of the universe. If you only believe in one thing, let it be life. Believe in the creation of life, in recreation, in transformation, in all forms and journeys toward life, but never in a void. Evidence is all around you of purpose, of intent, of the love of creation. This earth's intention is to sustain life, to protect and inspire life and the cosmos inspires to help do the same. That is entirely selfless love. Create love in your life without personal motive, exactly how the earth has always taught you to.
Be observant, is love reciprocated to you selflessly? Creation guides us, instructs us, protects us and fills us with wisdom.
And now we are prepared to contemplate the chapter.
13:1 All that is thought, said and done without the intention of love (in its many forms) propelling it, is rendered moot by the stagnancy of selfishness. In every moment be aware of the intention behind your pursuits. On the branches of love are justice, compassion, wisdom, hope, faith, truth, safety, laughter, friendship... if what you are journeying toward does not have these intentions inspiring you to focus and to be productive, you waste yourself, yours and others' time and an abundance of opportunity around you.
Basically your life here on earth can be a beautiful song but without love, you're simply making noise...and it's a nuisance. That is to say: greedy and arrogant behavior and pursuits contribute the detriment of good things and good people.
13:2 Having procured all of the power of the universe, all of the knowledge of the world, all of the fame throughout humanity... a person is still empty without love. Why? Because you cannot be filled by something without substance. Love is the only substance there truly is. Love is the only thing which extends beyond all limits and boundaries of thought, feeling and universe.
13:3 You must not live emptily. There is life within you, your spirituality, and when you do or say any act or word it should be with passion. Your brain and soul and body are a collaborating miracle. You have the ability to think, perceive, discern, and decide. Do so! Establish the intention of your life.
You cannot go through the motions of life or faith without creating an authentic self. You must be emphatic about your beliefs and actions. If you say you have established values, you must be honest and consistent about also living them.
13:4 Love is patient. Love is patience. Love is allowing but also anticipating life to guide us as a current. Love is having the wherewithal to grow and to allow others to grow and to accept happiness and paths different than the ones we might have chosen.
Here is what love is not:
13:8-9 Love is constant. Love is The Constant of life. Material wealth, power, fame... all of it fades away until it is obliterated completely. Spiritually, there is only love. Only compassion. Seasons change and years pass, generations come and go, eras on the earth shift and develop and age but love never does. Love always is.
Humanity is in awe of the immensity of the universe. To me, the universe seems quite small when I imagine filling it up with all of the love I have for my friends and family, for humanity and animals and plant life, my love for justice and laughter. My love for those things and people cannot be contained, not even in an infinite space. The universe is quite small indeed when I consider it relative to love. Love is the only truly immense existence. If the universe is small, surely everything else is too: all of our worries and greediness and frustrations and fears... but love is big.
13:10 The earth is a schooling and all around it and within it is the Spirit of creation. The spirit of creation will restore only truths. Love is the only truth. So we must not pursue useless things like wealth, power or fame because none of it will satisfy us and certainly none of it will last.
13:11-12 We are here to create ourselves. To be observant of our own behavior and of others. We are learning and growing, and not just physically in age. Throughout life we should continue to divest childish behaviors from ourselves in order that we might be complete, authentic, wise souls in the Spirit.
13:13 Live with faith, hope and love, the cultivator of all that is good, just and permanent.
* This link is a relocation to the study "Why Are We Here?"
**This link is a relocation to the study "Sourcing Happiness: Creation vs. Derivation"
Basically your life here on earth can be a beautiful song but without love, you're simply making noise...and it's a nuisance. That is to say: greedy and arrogant behavior and pursuits contribute the detriment of good things and good people.
13:2 Having procured all of the power of the universe, all of the knowledge of the world, all of the fame throughout humanity... a person is still empty without love. Why? Because you cannot be filled by something without substance. Love is the only substance there truly is. Love is the only thing which extends beyond all limits and boundaries of thought, feeling and universe.
13:3 You must not live emptily. There is life within you, your spirituality, and when you do or say any act or word it should be with passion. Your brain and soul and body are a collaborating miracle. You have the ability to think, perceive, discern, and decide. Do so! Establish the intention of your life.
You cannot go through the motions of life or faith without creating an authentic self. You must be emphatic about your beliefs and actions. If you say you have established values, you must be honest and consistent about also living them.
13:4 Love is patient. Love is patience. Love is allowing but also anticipating life to guide us as a current. Love is having the wherewithal to grow and to allow others to grow and to accept happiness and paths different than the ones we might have chosen.
Here is what love is not:
- Love is not envious. Love does not fight or yearn for attention because one must understand and find comfort in the fact that they are loved and attended to by greater forces than other humans (and by one's own love for themselves). Love understands that true love is given freely and abundantly and pursues nothing less. Love does not compete for other versions of itself because when your mind and soul are healthy, there is no other version of yourself you will ever desire to be.
- Love is not arrogant. Love is loving to give humbly. Love is giving love without personal motive or requirement.
- Love is not rude. Devoid of greed, arrogance and selfishness, love is open and thoughtful. Love is aware and inspired by those who exist among it. Love's intention is to give love not to offend or hurt.
- Love does not pursue its own interests. True love is selfless. Love does not seek gain for itself because it understands that its gains are sought for naturally, automatically by its good intention in the world. Kindness begets kindness. Being in-tune with the frequency of the good-intention of the spiritual universe, love need not desperately procure to feel validated. Love is given to because of how much it gives.
- Remember that there are many versions of love. The love we speak of is not limited to romantic love. Love as justice, as truth, as friendship, as providing inspiration and opportunity where and to whom it is needed...
- It's also imperative to remember Matthew 10:4 which reminds us not to stay where we are not valued. We are not required give our valuable love to an ungrateful or even hateful abyss (person or situation). We are only required to be our best selves... but our best selves are not stationary, and we are meant to walk away from situations and people who do not understand this very lesson we are learning: what true love is.
- Love does not have a temper. Love, as we discussed, is patient, kind, thoughtful and open. Love has no reason to rush or become vexed because of its understanding that we are protected, guided and loved by forces greater than we can even comprehend. Love understands that difficult situations and people are best dealt with with a calm and level head, that adverse and explosive reactions are unproductive.
- Love has no negative intention. Love is logical in that it understands any evil or unkind act is an act which undermines itself. Love understands that negative and even indifferent intention across the globe contribute to the detriment of many good things and good people. Love understands that every moment should be lived positively in order to create a life of positivity.
- Love does not support anything contrary to justice. Justice requires that all life is treated with value and respect; justice requires that all life is sustained, protected and encouraged. Love loves life and justice is a promoter of life.
Love is:
- Resilient: Love understands that life is a schooling. Love understands its own strength and ability not just to survive but to rebound and to thrive. Love understands that the many facets of love and life are only learned through experience and therefore love welcomes the experiences of life. (A slight digression: I am reminded of the poet Rumi's poem "The Guest House", a beautiful poem about the reliance we now speak of:
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
- Believing: Rather than believe all things ignorantly and aimlessly, love believes in the value of itself in the earth and among humanity. In the purpose of itself to sustain humanity.
- Hopeful: Born of love's patience and kindness is love's constant ability to hope. Love is optimistic but also agile and productive in ensuring that the curve of life is always journeying upwards.
- Enduring: Love endures its own growth pains. Love endures the grow pains of humanity as well. We are all fallible. Love understands and does not allow itself to be diminished by others' mistakes or consequences, or even by the consequences of its own mistakes. Love learns and then grows... this is the process of endurance.
Humanity is in awe of the immensity of the universe. To me, the universe seems quite small when I imagine filling it up with all of the love I have for my friends and family, for humanity and animals and plant life, my love for justice and laughter. My love for those things and people cannot be contained, not even in an infinite space. The universe is quite small indeed when I consider it relative to love. Love is the only truly immense existence. If the universe is small, surely everything else is too: all of our worries and greediness and frustrations and fears... but love is big.
13:10 The earth is a schooling and all around it and within it is the Spirit of creation. The spirit of creation will restore only truths. Love is the only truth. So we must not pursue useless things like wealth, power or fame because none of it will satisfy us and certainly none of it will last.
13:11-12 We are here to create ourselves. To be observant of our own behavior and of others. We are learning and growing, and not just physically in age. Throughout life we should continue to divest childish behaviors from ourselves in order that we might be complete, authentic, wise souls in the Spirit.
13:13 Live with faith, hope and love, the cultivator of all that is good, just and permanent.
* This link is a relocation to the study "Why Are We Here?"
**This link is a relocation to the study "Sourcing Happiness: Creation vs. Derivation"
