I Corinthians 13: 1-3
Here is the "more excellent way"--the way of Love.
If I speak with the tongues of men and of Angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
No matter what flowery language I use, my words will convey no more value than just meaningless noise, if I don't love my hearers.
If I have the gift of prophesy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
No matter what I know, no matter what I've learned from God, and no matter if my faith can terraform the surface of this Earth, I'm still nobody if I don't love the people that God loves.
And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Even if I give away a fortune, leaving nothing for myself, and willingly face martyrdom, it still wouldn't be worth anything if I don't love the people around me and treat them with the consideration God gives us all.
This is how important it is for us to love others, even our enemies, the way Jesus has loved us, even when we were His enemies.
And the following verses describe what this love looks like.
O my Father, please open our minds and hearts to not just understand what these concepts are, but to cut us deeply to actually love one another graciously and compassionately and sacrificially, no matter what it will take from us.
Father, You gave us Your very Best, most Precious! Teach us how to do the same for one another. Break our hearts for what breaks Your heart, Father, and strengthen us with Your boldness and faithfulness and energy to go out, to do, to say, to write, to be the witnesses You mean for us to be, to those in each of our little worlds, to build up and help and teach and show Your Love to one another.
And send more workers into Your mission fields, Father, to find those who are looking for You, to rescue the perishing from every evil deed and out of this present evil age, into the safety and rest of Your fold, that there be Your One Fold with One Shepherd.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will proclaim in every language that Jesus is Lord God Almighty, our sovereign King, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
