The Real Meaning of Loving-kindness

Weymouth: I Corinthians Chapter 13

1. If I can speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but am destitute of Love, I have but become a loud-sounding trumpet or a clanging cymbal.
   
2. If I possess the gift of prophecy and am versed in all mysteries and all knowledge, and have such absolute faith that I can remove mountains, but am destitute of Love, I am nothing.
   
3. And if I distribute all my possessions to the poor, and give up my body to be burned, but am destitute of Love, it profits me nothing.
   
4. Love is patient and kind. Love knows neither envy nor jealousy. Love is not forward and self-assertive, nor boastful and conceited.
   
5. She does not behave unbecomingly, nor seek to aggrandize herself, nor blaze out in passionate anger, nor brood over wrongs.
   
6. She finds no pleasure in injustice done to others, but joyfully sides with the truth.
   
7. She knows how to be silent. She is full of trust, full of hope, full of patient endurance.
   
8. Love never fails. But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with; if there are languages, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be brought to an end.
   
9. For our knowledge is imperfect, and so is our prophesying;
   
10. but when the perfect state of things is come, all that is imperfect will be brought to an end.
    
11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, felt like a child, reasoned like a child: when I became a man, I put from me childish ways.
    
12. For the present we see things as if in a mirror, and are puzzled; but then we shall see them face to face. For the present the knowledge I gain is imperfect; but then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
    
13. And so there remain Faith, Hope, Love--these three; and of these the greatest is Love.

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I Corinthians 13 speaks of agapé which we know as unconditional love. It defines love, and thereby helps the faithful to understand the real meaning of loving-kindness. It is this love which transcends human love, which is symbolized by Cupid and by Valentine's Day.

No one can create this love alone, for it only comes about when we share our lives with family and friends. In this way does love inspire compassion.

Peace to you all!