Seeketh Not

I grew up with King James (the version, not the actual king ... I'm not THAT old), so a lot of Scripture is stuck in my head in King James. Like the "Charity" chapter where we learn cool things like "charity vaunteth not itself" (1 Cor 13:4) and "seeketh not her own" (1 Cor 13:5). (I didn't even know charity had a gender.) Imagine a 12-year-old reading "Charity vaunteth not itself" and trying to make sense of it. "Let's see ... when we give things to worthy causes, it shouldn't ... vaunt itself? I thought this was English." So, like, the New American Standard (1977 edition) offered, "love does not brag" and it was a whole new ballgame. "Oh! 'Charity' equals 'love' and ' vaunteth' equals 'brag.' Got it." Like some code translator.

You can see how language gave me a hard time back then. I get it. What I don't get is why we miss so much. If "love" is "a strong feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection," what in the world is Paul writing about (1 Cor 13:4-8)? Some makes sense. "Not rude." Sure, if you have strong feelings for someone, you won't be rude ... I guess. But "does not seek its own"? Don't we all seek our own? Isn't our standard question, "What's in it for me?" Don't lovers approach marriage with "Is he/she good for me?" Is that not the singular question of the human race? "What do I get out of it?" But this text tells us love does not pursue what it wants for the one giving love, but for the one being loved.

Try as we might, we don't seem to get this world's notion that "love is a warm feeling" out of our head. No thinking person can read Paul's description of love in the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians and conclude it is merely some kind of feeling. It's not rational. It makes no sense. Conversely, when you take the commands, for instance, to love God and love your neighbor, pull out "love" and replace it with the text in 1 Corinthians 13, it becomes huge. We're not talking about having affection for God and your fellow man. We're talking about a massive, selfless, giving decision to pursue the best for someone else ... beginning with God. It's all very clear ... and somehow we just don't seem to notice it ... almost every time we talk about love and God and our fellow human beings.