Love is....

Today, at church, I was supposed to work in the nursery, but I couldn't because I might have the shingles.
I was disappointed, but it ended up being a blessing because our pastor was preaching about 1st Corinthians 13, which is also known as the love chapter.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

In this chapter, love is not a verb. It is a noun. At the end of the sermon, our pastor read it again and replaced the word 'love' with 'Christ.'

If I speak in tongues of men of angels and do not have Christ, I am a resounding gong or clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith so I can move mountains, but have not Christ I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames and have not Christ, I gain nothing 

Love is Christ.

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and Christ, but the greatest of these is Christ.