I have a class tonight, and as I prepared, I came across a book by Emily Sell called The Spirit of Loving. I flipped to a page which I recognize as biblical, but I haven’t read the bible, so I don’t know mote than that.
This passage has obvious significance to the topic of the day, it plays around the same concepts. I’ll just copy it here:
I may speak of men or angels, but if I am without love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophecy, and know every hidden truth; I may have faith strong enough to move mountains; but if I have no love, I am nothing. I may dole out all I possess, or even give my body to be burnt, but if I have no love, I am none the better.
Love is patient; love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful, or conceited, nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offense. Love keeps no score of wrongs; does not gloat over other men’s sins, but delights in truth. There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to it’s faith, it’s hope, and it’s endurance.
Love will never come to an end. Are there prophets? Their work will be over. Are their tongues of ecstasy? They will cease. Is there knowledge? It will vanish away. For our knowledge is partial, and our prophecy alike are partial, and the partial vanishes when wholeness comes.
Saint Paul
Wow. More than just a cheesy best man’s speech at your friend’s wedding, eh?
I tell ya, that’s the first time I have ever related to anything biblical. Maybe because it’s the first time I didn’t automatically write it off, because it is biblical. It’s comforting, actually, to know there is some truth in that book. That it reflects a millennia of spiritual searchers on earth, and reveals the same answers.
Kate Sitka 
http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/13-1.htm links to some interesting commentaries about that text in its original context. I think you can find some universal truths in pretty much every piece of communication (be they religious texts, books, speeches, etc.), regardless of whether or not you hold the entire body of that communication — or the people who wrote/spoke them — in high esteem.
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Yeah, I just glaze over this kind of stuff. Similar to what happened when I try to read “A Course in Miracles” – I get this feeling of impatience, as though the semantics / word wars are creating more distance to the point, rather than bringing me closer. It feels like beating around the bush, and I find it difficult to incorporate.
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You know, I often tell people that if you are looking at the Bible for any reason other than to help direct you to the truth within your soul, you are using it for a purpose that it was not intended for. You can choose to see errors and contradictions in the Bible, and you will find them. Or, you can “read between the lines” and find the larger meaning in the text. The Bible is like a “road map to the soul”. Maybe some of the markings and symbols are a little out of date, but it can lead you to the truth if you let it. Just like with any other text. It’s a choosing to be open to the truth when it presents itself, even in places where you didn’t think you would find it. I look for the ways that the various sources overlap, and I try not to focus on where they differ and acknowledge where they agree with each other. It’s all connected to the highest truth in some way. Truth is like a multi faceted gem that has many sides to it but you can learn more when you decide not to camp out on only one facet. (if that makes any sense)
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I understand and I agree. I actually think the story of Eve being made from Adam’s rib was a symbolism for evolution, cellular mitosis and the change from androgynous to gendered.
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