Paul extols the high status of charity—Charity, a pure love, excels and exceeds almost all else.
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not acharity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the apoor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
8 Charity never afaileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
11 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.
13 And now abideth afaith, bhope, ccharity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
My mission president asked us to memorize this chapter in 1 Corinthians quarterly. I believe at the time I understood it in part. But the more I learn about the gospel and the people around me, the more I begin to understand what Paul was talking about.
We can have every good gift in the world, and it will profit us nothing if we don't have charity. It is the ever important Christlike attribute that completes the necessary three. So many times in the scriptures you will find faith, hope and charity together. Paul tells us that the most important one is charity.
Tonight I learned something interesting. I was speaking with my bishop and we were talking about how often we don't see clearly. That's when verses 11 & 12 came to my mind. So often we are so childlike about things and our perspective won't change until we "grow" (spiritually or physically); and often our view is obscured by dark glass when later we see "face to face."
I don't know that I can explain what I was taught other than that we need to constantly be growing and stretching, and putting away childish things. These could include things like our attitudes, pride, and a whole host of other things. Paul teaches that only when those things are put out of our lives that faith, hope and charity will be able to abide in our lives. For "when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away."
My mission president asked us to memorize this chapter in 1 Corinthians quarterly. I believe at the time I understood it in part. But the more I learn about the gospel and the people around me, the more I begin to understand what Paul was talking about.
We can have every good gift in the world, and it will profit us nothing if we don't have charity. It is the ever important Christlike attribute that completes the necessary three. So many times in the scriptures you will find faith, hope and charity together. Paul tells us that the most important one is charity.
Tonight I learned something interesting. I was speaking with my bishop and we were talking about how often we don't see clearly. That's when verses 11 & 12 came to my mind. So often we are so childlike about things and our perspective won't change until we "grow" (spiritually or physically); and often our view is obscured by dark glass when later we see "face to face."
I don't know that I can explain what I was taught other than that we need to constantly be growing and stretching, and putting away childish things. These could include things like our attitudes, pride, and a whole host of other things. Paul teaches that only when those things are put out of our lives that faith, hope and charity will be able to abide in our lives. For "when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away."
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