The unfamiliar words and phrases found in different Bible translations cause you to stop and think a moment, almost as if shaking you out of a stupor…one of those “I’ve heard that verse a million times, kind of stupors.”
If I speak with eloquence in earth’s many languages, and in the heavenly tongues of angels, but don’t have a profound thoughtfulness and unselfish concern for other believers regardless of their circumstances or station in life growing out of God’s love for me, then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction].
And if I were to have the gift of prophecy with a profound understanding of God’s hidden secrets, and if I possessed unending supernatural knowledge, and if I had the greatest gift of faith that could move mountains, but have never learned to reach out to others in love, then I am nothing.
And if I were to be so generous as to give away everything I owned to feed the poor, and surrender my body to be burned, without the pure motive of love, I would gain nothing of value.
1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-3
1 Corinthians 13 is one of those passages that we’ve all heard countless times. It’s often called the “love chapter” and is popular in home decor, greeting cards… all the places. We hear so often, especially in February, that we don’t actually “HEAR” it anymore. It has, in some ways, become cliché.
Even the subject of love itself is one that has become so watered down and common—- that our concept of love is deeply flawed, but the Bible has so much to say about the topic.
According to the Blue Letter Bible, the word “love” appears in the NIV translation 574 times in 526 verses. In the NLT, it’s 645 times in 575 verses.
God is love. And love is so important to Him, that He spends the whole Bible explaining His love to us.
The verses I read at the beginning of this episode were from 1 Corinthians 13. They were verses 1-3, but they weren’t from only one translation, so it may have sounded kind of familiar, but kind of not.
And that’s actually the point of looking at scripture in different translations. The unfamiliar words and phrases cause you to stop and think a moment, almost as if shaking you out of a stupor…one of those “I’ve heard that verse a million times, kind of stupors.”
I’m going to read them again and this time, I encourage you to really listen to the words.
If I speak with eloquence in earth’s many languages, and in the heavenly tongues of angels, but don’t have a profound thoughtfulness and unselfish concern for other believers regardless of their circumstances or station in life growing out of God’s love for me, then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction].
And if I were to have the gift of prophecy with a profound understanding of God’s hidden secrets, and if I possessed unending supernatural knowledge, and if I had the greatest gift of faith that could move mountains, but have never learned to reach out to others in love, then I am nothing.
And if I were to be so generous as to give away everything I owned to feed the poor, and surrender my body to be burned, without the pure motive of love, I would gain nothing of value.
1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-3
When you read through and meditate on scripture in multiple translations, you can get a deeper, fuller, clearer meaning of what God means when He calls us to love others.
In this month known for love, may I encourage you to spend some time meditating on 1 Corinthians 13, to dig deep and let them dig deep into you?
Here are three ways you can unlock familiar passages of scripture.
- Read at the verses in multiple translations. In the section I read at the beginning, I pulled from the Amplified Version, New Living Translation, NIV, and The Passion Translation.
Ask Holy Spirit what He wants to reveal to you in those verses and then pay attention to the words or the phrases that tug at you or seem to jump off the page.
- Then, write the verses Holy Spirit highlights to you using the parts from each translation that really resonate with you. Even you aren’t a journaler, writing out the scripture can help it to really sink in. We’ll talk about that more in another episode.
- And lastly, make it personal. You can do that by exchanging your name for the word “love.” So, it might sound something like this:
ROSE [love] is gentle and consistently kind to all. SHE [love] refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. ROSE [love] does not brag about her own achievements nor inflate her own importance.
Also, I have a couple of resources you may find helpful as you continue to dig in.
- Last year, I created a Scripture Cultivations on this topic. If you’re new to the Figs Community, Scripture Cultivations are sort of like a scripture reading list or scripture writing list but more because my heart is to help you explore lots of different ways to engage with God so you can discover the ones that best help you connect with Him. Scripture Cultivations are fee and I’ll drop a link in the show notes.
- The second resource is a video I did on understand the difference in Bible translations and how they can help you in understanding God’s Word better. It was part of the 119 Bible Bootcamp series I did and I’ll leave that link in the show notes for you to.
LINKS & RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE
Scripture Cultivations for Perfect Love
