This Week's Devotional: The Most Excellent Way

Week 5 – January 28-February 3, 2024

This week’s daily readings:

Reading January 28-February 3, 2024

This week’s devotional:

The Most Excellent Way
by Rev. Lucy Albert

Scripture:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 

— 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (NIV) 

Reflection:

Just before Frank and I were engaged to be married, I took a job at a Christian bookstore near our college campus. Initially serving as an assistant to the card and gift buyer, my responsibilities included unpacking, pricing, and displaying many different types of goods featuring Christian themes. After my boss asked me to take responsibility for ordering also, I spent much time perusing catalogs and websites and sitting with sales representatives in the process of selecting inventory. 

Some part of this Scripture passage (above) seemed to be on everything! From plastic toys for Sunday School prizes to the most lovely, framed calligraphy prints and all levels of products in between, I could not get away from 1 Corinthians 13. I was so tired of reading bits of this passage that its meaning had dulled for me.

I still worked there as Frank and I navigated our engagement and were finally married. I believe that the Scripture on which our Pastor was to preach at our wedding remained a mystery until the ceremony neared, and I was less than excited to learn that this passage was his chosen text. Couldn’t he have picked something obscure and more interesting? 

We’re now more than three decades past our wedding, and I couldn’t say how long it took for my inoculation against 1 Corinthians 13 to wear off. Slowly, I’ve come to embrace the truth of Paul’s introduction at the end of Chapter 12: “And now I will show you the most excellent way.” This exhortation to the Corinthian church applies to all Christians throughout time. This is the kind of love Jesus modeled; love like he did! Don’t lose sight of loving others being the second greatest commandment. Loving other people, no matter where it’s talked about in Scripture, always comes back to these basic concepts: practicing patience and kindness, and rejecting envy, boasting, pride, dishonor, serving oneself, being quick to anger, and keeping a record of wrongs. 

Having now shown us the “most excellent way,” Paul says shortly after, “Follow the way of love.” (1 Corinthians 14:1) In what relationships do you particularly need to choose love today?

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, where would we be without love? You are love! You own it, you invented it, and you give it like no other. On our best days, we remember Jesus commanded us to love not only you, but others. Teach us to delight in all the most excellent ways of love and to avoid the things love should not be. Let this be true not only in our marriages, but in all our relationships – even with strangers and people we find difficult to love. Holy Spirit, fill us with love and guide us in all that we do, from this day forward. Amen