How appropriate to meditate on this chapter on Christmas Day! Paul has just finished explaining spiritual gifts to the church at Corinth. Many of them were enamored with the ecstatic manifestations of the Holy Spirit. He concludes chapter 12 with a sort of surprising caveat, “and now I will show the most excellent way.” It is as if to say, “spiritual gifts are great and they have their place, but they pale in comparison to the greatest gift.” That greatest gift is of course love. But not love as in a temporal emotion or passing fancy, but the love of God. The undiluted, undeserved, unimaginable love that comes from God, is personified in Christ, and remains available to us by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Christian calendar today is not the end of a season but the beginning of celebrating the incarnate God that is defined best by love; that’s what He is after all.
And now where there has been rushing, let there be stillness. Where there has been frustration and hurried anticipation, let there be contentment and calm. Where there have been moments of warm feelings and also sadness over loss, let there be the enduring love which echoes from Heaven throughout our hurting world. When you don’t know what to give, give love. It never fails.
From the heart of a pastor and a fellow sojourner in this often unloving world, Merry Christmas and Love to all!
Justin Dunn