Love

1 Corinthians 13 I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. ²I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains--but if I have no love, I am nothing. ³I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned--but if I have no love, this does me no good.
⁴Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; ⁵love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; ⁶love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. ⁷Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.
⁸Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass. ⁹For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial; ¹⁰but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.
¹¹When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I am an adult, I have no more use for childish ways. ¹²What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete--as complete as God's knowledge of me.
¹³Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.

The Syrian Army Leaves

2 Kings 7 ³Four men who were suffering from a dreaded skin disease were outside the gates of Samaria, and they said to each other, "Why should we wait here until we die? ⁴It's no use going into the city, because we would starve to death in there; but if we stay here, we'll die also. So let's go to the Syrian camp; the worst they can do is kill us, but maybe they will spare our lives." ⁵So, as it began to get dark, they went to the Syrian camp, but when they reached it, no one was there. ⁶The Lord had made the Syrians hear what sounded like the advance of a large army with horses and chariots, and the Syrians thought that the king of Israel had hired Hittite and Egyptian kings and their armies to attack them. ⁷So that evening the Syrians had fled for their lives, abandoning their tents, horses, and donkeys, and leaving the camp just as it was.
⁸When the four men reached the edge of the camp, they went into a tent, ate and drank what was there, grabbed the silver, gold, and clothing they found, and went off and hid them; then they returned, entered another tent, and did the same thing. ⁹But then they said to each other, "We shouldn't be doing this! We have good news, and we shouldn't keep it to ourselves. If we wait until morning to tell it, we are sure to be punished. Let's go right now and tell the king's officers!" ¹⁰So they left the Syrian camp, went back to Samaria, and called out to the guards at the gates: "We went to the Syrian camp and didn't see or hear anybody; the horses and donkeys have not been untied, and the tents are just as the Syrians left them."
¹¹The guards announced the news, and it was reported in the palace. ¹²It was still night, but the king got out of bed and said to his officials, "I'll tell you what the Syrians are planning! They know about the famine here, so they have left their camp to go and hide in the countryside. They think that we will leave the city to find food, and then they will take us alive and capture the city."
¹³One of his officials said, "The people here in the city are doomed anyway, like those that have already died. So let's send some men with five of the horses that are left, so that we can find out what has happened." ¹⁴They chose some men, and the king sent them in two chariots with instructions to go and find out what had happened to the Syrian army. ¹⁵The men went as far as the Jordan, and all along the road they saw the clothes and equipment that the Syrians had abandoned as they fled. Then they returned and reported to the king. ¹⁶The people of Samaria rushed out and looted the Syrian camp. And as the LORD had said, ten pounds of the best wheat or twenty pounds of barley were sold for one piece of silver.
¹⁷It so happened that the king of Israel had put the city gate under the command of the officer who was his personal attendant. The officer was trampled to death there by the people and died, as Elisha had predicted when the king went to see him. ¹⁸Elisha had told the king that by that time the following day ten pounds of the best wheat or twenty pounds of barley would be sold in Samaria for one piece of silver, ¹⁹to which the officer had answered, "That can't happen--not even if the LORD himself were to send grain at once!" And Elisha had replied, "You will see it happen, but you won't get to eat any of the food." ²⁰And that is just what happened to him--he died, trampled to death by the people at the city gate.

Jonah's Prayer

Jonah 2 From deep inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God:
²"In my distress, O LORD, I called to you,
and you answered me.
From deep in the world of the dead
I cried for help, and you heard me.
³You threw me down into the depths,
to the very bottom of the sea,
where the waters were all around me,
and all your mighty waves rolled over me.
⁴I thought I had been banished from your presence
and would never see your holy Temple again.
⁵The water came over me and choked me;
the sea covered me completely,
and seaweed wrapped around my head.
⁶I went down to the very roots of the mountains,
into the land whose gates lock shut forever.
But you, O LORD my God,
brought me back from the depths alive.
⁷When I felt my life slipping away,
then, O LORD, I prayed to you,
and in your holy Temple you heard me.
⁸Those who worship worthless idols
have abandoned their loyalty to you.
⁹But I will sing praises to you;
I will offer you a sacrifice
and do what I have promised.
Salvation comes from the LORD!"
¹⁰Then the LORD ordered the fish to spit Jonah up on the beach, and it did.