Cindy and I have been reading through a book called "Love is..." by Les and Leslie Parrott. The book's 17 chapters break down I Corinthians 13--often referred to as the Love chapter of the Bible--and provide thoughts on each individual version, as well as 17 different translations of this most famous of scriptures.
Last week, we read the J. B. Phillips translation, published in 1958. I had never heard of J. B. Phillips, nor ever knew that he had written his own translation of the Bible, but I think I'd like to pick one up after seeing how he handled I Corinthians 13. Listen for yourself how artfully he captures a profound message that we perhaps know too well to fully appreciate.
I Corinthians 13
Translation by J. B. Phillips
"If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crashing cymbal. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith that can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing.
"The love of which I speak is slow to lose patience--it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive. It is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance.
"Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when Truth prevails.
"Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.
"For if there are prophecies, they will be fulfilled and done with; if there are "tongues," the need for them will disappear; if there is knowledge, it will be swallowed up in truth. For our knowledge is always incomplete and our prophecy is always incomplete, and when the Complete comes, that is the end of the Incomplete.
"When I was a little child I talked and felt and thought like a little child. Now that I am a man my childish speech and feeling and thought have no further significance for me.
"At present we are looking at puzzling reflections in a mirror. The time will come when we shall see reality whole and face to face! At present all I know is a little fraction of the truth, but the time will come when I shall know it as fully as God now knows me!
"In this life we have three great lasting qualities--faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love."
I especially like the line, "[love] can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen."
To me, it serves as a challenge: when all else has fallen and only my love for others is standing, will I be proud of what I have invested in that most eternal of objectives?
For no matter what else I have earned and achieved in this life, if my investment in love has been small, I will be the poorest of souls.
