This verse has been on my mind recently. I was once asked to write my Philosophy of Education. It was embarrassingly slick w/ lots of buzz words from that era. But if I had to rewrite it, I would simply reference I Corinthians 13 – all of it.
No matter how pretty we make our lesson plans. No matter how ordered our data meetings are. No matter how many field trips we pay for. No matter how much sleep we lose. Even if we deliver the world’s best lesson. It is of no value on its own. Only when we place all of it in the hands of Jesus…only then does our work come to bear fruit which will last.
These are, in my opinion, some of the most beautifully written words of the Bible. Imagine for a minute if I Corinthians 13 drove our decision making at the system, building, and classroom levels. Imagine these words being placed into the hands of students to study.
If I speak in the tongues a of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, b but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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