Monday, December 31, 2007

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

THE HYMN OF LOVE

I Corinthians 13

This greatest of all Bible chapters on love is a grand generalization that can be applied to situations of romantic love, family love, love of friends, love of God, and love of self.

Most of the assertions are denials: the via negativa, what love is not.

            Comparisons:

v    Love is not as important as speaking in tongues

v    Love is not as important as the gift of prophecy

v    Love is not as important as knowledge

v    Love is not as important generosity

v    Love is not as important as self-sacrifice

            Character traits:

v    Love does not envy

v    Love does not boast

v    Love in not proud

v    Love is not rude

v    Love is not self-seeking

v    Love is not easily angered

v    Love keeps no record of wrongs

v    Love does not delight in evil

Positive assertions of love:

v    Love is patient

v    Love is kind

v    Love always protects

v    Love always trusts

v    Love always hopes

v    Love always perseveres

v    Love never fails

v    Love is greater than faith and hope