[Michael Chui]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Perhaps there are additional discussion points to be found in these words as well.

There are. Let me share some of my interpretations.

First, my definition of love. Simply put, love is an action wherein equality is increased through the increase of knowledge. Both of these are required.

Originally Posted by Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:1

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

Language is the medium of expression and communication. However, the mindless babbling of an idiot, even if he has a mastery over all forms of expression, is still a mindless babbling. See all those wonderful quotations that correlate wisdom with silence, and foolishness with speech. This is expression without knowledge, as a clanging cymbal.

As a medium of communication, language is useful only between those who share the same language. See The Chinese Room for an illustration of a shared language without real communication. Communication is developed through rapport, an implicit understanding that the other party is capable of receiving the message through a shared sameness with the speaker. You may as well be speaking gibberish, a resounding gong, if your audience is entirely alien to you.

Originally Posted by Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:2

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

This is a subtler point. Prophecy is not the ability to see the future; it is the ability to speak the truth. It merely happens that prophets tend to talk about the future, and what they say is true.

However, it comes down to knowledge. Knowledge can only take you so far; in love, knowledge must lead to equality, else the path becomes one of loneliness. To know God without loving Him is to be Satan himself: nothing.

Further, this verse introduces the notion of "faith". Faith is a certainty in the present, an assumption by which we found our beliefs and knowledge. However, mere faith is useless: upon faith, you must build knowledge, and upon knowledge you must, as aforementioned, build love.

Originally Posted by Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:3

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

A common failing in religious persons since time immemorial is the worship of sacrifice. They think that to suffer, in and of itself, is a goal. But pain is not an objective; it is, like the freedom it brings, merely a gatekeeper. Pain is a key, sacrifice is the arrival at the gate, and freedom is the opening of that gate. But for what?

Without love, without knowledge and equality, the gate leads nowhere.

Originally Posted by Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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.

In loving, you

• ...understand that some things take time. (Knowledge)
• ...desire the best for that which you love. (Equality)
• ...consider your beloved's accomplishments your own. (Equality)

Etc.

Oh, and I should make a note of "self-seeking". Love most certainly is self-seeking, but outside of the level of equality present, this is what it looks like. That is why we believe that altruism exists, though it does not. Read my definition--the section about Compassion--for more.

Originally Posted by Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:9

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Love cannot fail; it is a process, a purpose unto itself. It does not falter or fail: you do not "fall out of love". You merely decide that it is Not-You, and alienate yourself from it, or the other way around.

And as for the knowledge passing away bit I'm sure you're wondering about, well, I am not Paul. The only circumstance I can imagine is, in the higher order of sentience that may come about in the future, the knowledge of today is a bit... irrelevant. I can see that. And in a way, he is talking about the distant future, so it's not too much of a leap.

Originally Posted by Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:10

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

In other words, we only know certain truths but partially, but in perfection, our knowledge will be complete. Bit of a gambit, I think personally, but Paul thought this would happen in a couple years. Then he went and got himself crucified.

Originally Posted by Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:11-12

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

This is one of my favorites, being that it specifically encourages the veneration of the elder as opposed to the child: a severe counterbalance to the trend today.

However, I think it is agreeable to assert that the acquisition of knowledge takes time. And in knowing, you forcibly separate yourself from others, because everyone has a differing path to knowledge, so you cannot be completely united in this. However, at a certain point, it is possible to reunite: and that is when we leave adolescence behind and reach maturity. Many people never reach that point.

Originally Posted by Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:13

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Faith, as you recall, is a certainty in the present. I put it this way specifically to contrast it to Hope, which is an attitude regarding the future. So faith is the foundation, the rock upon which you build the universe. Hope is the outlook, the expectation of better, of passing through the gateway and being freed into a brighter land. A promised land, mayhap.

Love, however, is the binding force that makes this land possible at all.