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The 'more excellent way'
For the lesson titled "Love" from July 23 - 29, 2012
This week’s Bible Lesson, titled “Love,” opens and closes with the Apostle Paul’s “poem” to love in First Corinthians 13. As someone who moved in two overlapping spheres of Judaism and Greco-Roman culture, and understood them, Paul was well positioned to be very effective in his work of spreading Christianity. And his use of the word agape must have been particularly helpful in sharing the message of God’s love.
Paul was familiar with God as hesed in the Old Testament. Hesed is usually translated “steadfast love,” or “lovingkindness,” and is used to explain the covenant (or promise) between God and Israel. Paul frequently used the word agape, which was the Greek word used by philosophers such as Plato for the highest form of love, which is enduring and forgets self.
Paul traveled to Corinth, a busy port city, around 49–50 A.D. and started a congregation there. His letter to the Corinthians, written a few years later, addresses some of their concerns. He wanted them to be more unified; and the way, he explained, is through love. He introduced his poem to love by calling it the “more excellent way” (I Corinthians 12:31). It doesn’t matter what or how wonderful my gifts seem, explained Paul, if I “have no love, I amount to nothing at all” (I Corinthians 13:2, J.B. Phillips, Responsive Reading).
Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.
July 23, 2012 &
July 30, 2012
double issue
View Issue
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Letters
Steven Price, Blanche Saul, Candace Gibson
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Rejoicing together
Kim Shippey, Senior Staff Editor
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Borderless community
Walter Rodgers
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How big is good?
Nancy Mullen
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A rising tide lifts all boats
Jeff Ward-Bailey
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My first interfaith experience
Bonnie Mitchinson
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Embracing communities worldwide
Kim Shippey, Senior Staff Editor
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Climate change: What I could do
Elizabeth Graser-Lindsey
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Delight in international giving
Peter Dry
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Praying for a school community
Suzanne Smedley
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The grizzly bear delusion
Glenn Williams
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Salvation
Brian Kissock
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Unlimited resources
Heather Howland Kany
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Planted in a new path
Dorothy H. Thomson
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Love's leading
Tad Blake-Weber
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Seeking the way
Linda Gridley Lane
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The answer
Barbara Whitewater
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Solutions
Charlotte Bushnell
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Marjorie and the Dream
Phyllis W. Zeno
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Focused thought
Richard Albins
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God made you perfect
Megan Meehan
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What are you going to be when you grow up?
Leide Lessa
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Sign me up!
Bob Minnocci
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I shared with my professor
Bruce Matouka
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Your questions about church
Answers offered by Tim Myers and Michelle Nanouche
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'A spiritual model of life'
William Otieno
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The 'more excellent way'
Christa Kreutz
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Finding our God-given freedom
Ann Edwards
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A healing standard
Mark Sappenfield
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A summer of 'radical acts'
Jeff Ward-Bailey
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Lots of Laughs
Madora Kibbe
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Protected during a fall
Norma P. Cooper with contributions from Elizabeth Gibbons
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Chest pains overcome
B. James Jokerst
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Spinal meningitis healed
Charles O'Gorman
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Spine fracture healed
Brooks Rakos
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What makes you who you are?
The Editors