By Gail Biby
If I speak with the tongues of Rosetta Stone Greek, Power-Glide French and A Beka Spanish or a whole host of ivory-tower, ten-dollar theological terms but have not love I am just a noisy school bell or a clanging first-year percussion instrument.
And if I have prophetic powers to envision all my children and grandchildren as doctors, lawyers, devout/diligent mothers, clergy and engineers with six figure incomes…
...and if I understand all mysteries of ‘L’ brain, ‘R’ brain physiology, the doctrine of the Trinity, the miracles of Jesus, attention deficit disorder, or how God Himself could die in my place….
...and if I understand all knowledge regarding complex diagramming of sentences, various end-time eschatologies, algebra’s order of operations (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally), the steps in the scientific method, the differences between the French and American revolutions, all aspects of exegetical, historical, systematic and practical theology, and have memorized all twenty seven amendments to the U.S. Constitution...
...and if I have all faith so that I could move mountains in order to make a place for a larger garden in order to produce all the food my family will need for a year, including growing enough cotton and flax to make my own cloth, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have--15-passenger van, expectations for prosperity, store-bought soap, health insurance, television/cell phone/computer, my vacations, every spare minute of every day, my hobbies, health insurance, boat/snowmobile/lake cottage, and my library…
...and if I deliver up my body to be burned or to all sorts of horrors (beatings, shipwrecks, starvation, near drowning, stoning and imprisonment), but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind (even when the children and spouse are not!); love does not envy (even if I can’t afford that guaranteed-to-work-with-ease curriculum; even if my children must wear second-hand clothing); (love) does not boast (even when the children do really well on the standardized achievement tests); it is not arrogant (so what if your little one is already fluent in French and Greek at age 4 and has built his own computer by age 7!) or rude (sometimes what we call honesty is simply discourtesy; you really do not need to weigh in on everything!).
Love does not insist on its own way (there actually are many equally successful ways to home school and some parents have even raised Godly children without homeschooling them at all; God’s people are found in many different denominations; the support group does not need to function as you think it ought); (love) is not irritable (really do you think anyone is interested in your latest snit against your husband?; accidental milk spills at the table are just that; there is a big difference between childish irresponsibility and outright defiance!); love is not resentful (yes, it’s true-no matter how well you may do something or how well your child may do something, there is always someone who can do it better, someone who knows more than you do, someone who succeeds when you don’t); (love) does not rejoice at wrongdoing (this means truly entering into the joy of another’s success!), but rejoices with the truth (after all Jesus IS the way, THE TRUTH, and the life).
Love bears all things (sorrow over a wayward child, death of a spouse, unfaithful friends, separation, financial ruin, disloyalty, even failure);
(love) believes all things (by grace we are saved-it is a completely free gift, Christ will never leave us, God loves us with an everlasting love, we have eternal life);
(love) hopes all things (to one day dwell in the city not made with hands, to worship in the throne room without end, to never, ever sin again),
(love) endures all things (the homeschooling years will be over before you know it and your little ones will be little no more; your home will be silent, the dishes will finally be all clean and in the cupboard at the same time, laundry will be done and put away, grocery bills will be lessened, you can at long last take up quilting).
Love never ends (not ever, not here, not there, not now, not tomorrow, not forever).
As for prophecies, they will pass away, as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away (only God’s Word and God Himself will never change).
For we know in part (and we know very little of what there is to know) and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child (full of foolishness, often silly, seldom wise), I thought like a child (mostly about myself and what I wanted!), I reasoned like a child (coming to wrong and imprudent conclusions).
When I became a man, I gave up childish ways (I began to act in ways pleasing to God, thought of others more than myself, understood the ramifications of unwise behavior, began to understand the blessedness of obedience).
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face (the thin skin of the world keeps us from seeing the continual activity in the out-of-time dimension, prevents us from knowing God as He really is, keeps us from breathtaking awe). Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known (fully known by God, but loved with an everlasting love anyway!).
So now faith (confidence, reliance, assurance), hope (expectation, anticipation) and love (passion, devotion, adoration) abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
