HAVE all the gifts of healing?

do all speak with tongues?

do all interpret?


But
(in addition? or instead?)
covet earnestly the best gifts: 

and yet

I show unto you
A MORE EXCELLENT WAY.


THOUGH
I speak
with the tongues
of men and angels

and have not LOVE,

I am become as sounding brass,
or a tinkling cymbal.


And though
I have
the gift of prophecy,
and
understand
all mysteries,
and
all knowledge;


and though
I have faith,
so that I could remove mountains,

and have not LOVE,

I am nothing!


And though
I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor,
and though
I give my body
to be burned,

and have not LOVE,

it profiteth me nothing.



LOVE
suffereth long,
and
is kind;

LOVE
envieth not;

LOVE
vaunteth not itself,
is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly,

seeketh not her own,

is not easily provoked,

thinketh no evil;

Rejoiceth not in iniquity,
but rejoiceth in the truth;

Beareth all things;
believeth all things,
endureth all things.


LOVE
never faileth,

but whether there shall be
prophecies,
they shall fail,

whether there be
tongues,
they shall cease,

whether there shall be
knowledge,
it shall all vanish away.


FOR we know in part,
and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect
is come,
then that which is in part
shall be done away.



WHEN I was a child,
I spake as a child,
I understood as a child,
I thought as a child.

But when I became a man
I put away childish things.


For now we see through a glass, darkly;

but then face to face;

now I know in part;

but then
shall I know even as I am known.



AND NOW ABIDETH
FAITH,
HOPE,
LOVE,
these three;

but the greatest of these is LOVE.

_____________________

Please notice,
with regards to the
"feelings vs. action" dichotomy
which I have placed before you,
that the emphasis
in this great "love chapter"
is on action,
not on feelings,
or those things
commonly associated with
"puppy love",
or
"falling in love",
etc.

Let's take a closer look at those things
to which LOVE is analogized
or compared with

I will also mark whether it is
ACTION
or
FEELING:


ACTION - speaking with tongues

ACTION - prophesying

ACTION - understanding and knowledge

ACTION - have all faith

ACTION - bestow all goods

ACTION - give body to be burned


Now, folowing these analogies
we are told exactly what to expect
when we are trying to determine
whether
I am on the path to LOVE
or not:

ACTION - longsuffering

ACTION - kindness

ACTION - no envy

ACTION - no making a show of yourself

ACTION - no vain puffery (the sin of pride)

ACTION - does not behave unseemly
(we are to be wise as serpents
and harmless as doves
while living as sheep being led to the slaughter,
while giving everything we have to this cause; 
see John chapters 5-6,
where he explains these things
only to have everyone in the crowd,
except "the 12",
walk away,
not willing to do any of what he has just explained)

ACTION - is not self-seeking
(is an attribute of God;
seen constantly in Jesus,
in contradistinction to all of our
politicians
and movie stars
and sports stars,
and television personalities,
etc,
many of whom claim, rather ironically,
and, should we say,
a bit disingenuously, 
to be folliowing in Messiah's footsteps;
living exactly the opposite of him in this regard).

ACTION - not easily provoked
(slow to wrath,
quick to make amends
don't let the Sun go down on your anger
is an attribute of God)

ACTION - thinks no evil
(no evil thoughts = much less evil actions,
because out of the heart come the issues of life,
and because the tongue is ultimately controlled by the heart; 
also is an attribute of God)

ACTION - does not rejoice in iniquity
( = hates iniquity,
remembering that
it is BECAUSE iniquity doth abound
that the people in the latter days
lose their ability to love their own family members (astorge)

ACTION/FEELING - rejoices in the truth
(why reality therapy can work when nothing else does, so long as it does deal with reality)

ACTION - bears all things
( God= longsuffering = attribute of deity)

ACTION - believes all things
(as in saving faith
i.e. believes all things which SHOULD BE BELIEVED)

ACTION - hopeth all things
(faith, love, and hope)

ACTION - endureth all things
(God is longsuffering, as an attribute of his deity)
_____________

so where are the 'FEEEEEELLLLLLLINGS", anyway?

Lost in the actions?

___________________


I have to get on the road.

Am leaving in a few minutes, northbound 101, again.

w/LOVE to all.

vw

11:50 a.m. (pdst)
Friday
6-29-12
Ventura, California, USA