A favorite quote: It's all about Love

Writing Prompt: Favorite Quote and why you love it.

This one is not so easy. How do I pick just one quote?? Like a lot of bloggers I collect quotes, I love them. I jot them down in my journal, I post them here, I share them on Facebook and Twitter. I don't think I can pick just one!.....

At least that was what I thought when I started this post. My plan had been to share several of my favorite quotes. But the more I sit here looking at my computer the more I think I can narrow it down to just one, in fact I am sure of it.

My choice is Chapter 13 of 1st Corinthians. I know, it's a long quote. But the whole chapter is so beautifully written and speaks so clearly to me about what should be the most important aspect of my faith: Love. The rules and obligations of religion don't matter, what matters is love. We can stand in pulpits and preach the laws of God, we can shout it from the rooftops, we can protest with signs and march in parades, but are we missing the point? Because without love, what do our words matter? If people look at the followers of Christ and see only judgement then we have failed in our sole purpose, to share the love of God and the sacrifice of His son. This chapter speaks directly to this point, illustrating it with beauty and simplicity:

"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.

If I have the gift of prophecy, 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.

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.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly;
it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease;
if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. "

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I wrote this in response to a prompt in the "Blog Everyday Challenge", which I am not participating in. At least not everyday! :)