I have an affection for Eugene Peterson’s ‘The Message’ paraphrase – particularly for 1 Corinthians 13 which was read yesterday
Love never gives up
Love cares more for others than for self
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have
Love doesn’t strut
Doesn’t have a swelled head
Doesn’t force itself on others
Isn’t always ‘me first’
Doesn’t fly off the handle
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others
Doesn’t revel when others grovel
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth
Puts up with anything
Trusts God always
Always looks for the best
Never looks back
But keeps going to the end.
And part of a sermon from Newport on Tay to go with it
I love that version too. On Sunday it was our Family Service and some of our children wanted to do the reading. Of course it had to be this really long one but they divided it up amongst two of them with parents helping. It was the first time children have read in church and you could have heard a pin drop. But the most poignant bit for me was when Dad took over at the point ‘When I was a child… now I am a man…’ Glorious!