Saturday, August 22, 2009

Lectionary for 8/22/09

Today's readings are 1 Kings 2.1-27 and 1 Corinthians 13.1-13.

We read about the supremacy of love in 1 Corinthians 13.  All around us in today's society we see the idea of love being the thing that justifies, that makes everything all right.  We can have deep differences but if we just love each other it will be fine.  We can disagree but if we love each other we'll put our disagreements down and  decide the other person is right.  All you need is love, after all.

This is decidedly not so!  Love is the great gift of God, to be used for building his kingdom and serving our neighbors.  But it is not that which justifies, at least not the love we have.  God's love justifies us by compelling him to provide salvation for us.  As God's love has chosen and justified us we can also love.  But we can't justify ourselves or anyone else.  We can only act in response to the love our Lord has given us.

Beloved, let us love one another - with the love that God has given us in Christ.

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