Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13
My spiritual paradigm has been shifting for the past few years. When I made the decision to go into professional ministry as a vocation nearly 20 years ago, I believed my primary role as a pastor was to be a moral compass for those entrusted in my community. I studied theology to know how to correctly understand God and know what’s right and wrong. I was internally led by my need to know the correct answer to every question a skeptic, doubter, or cynic may present. But have I been overemphasizing rightness over relationships, social justice, or service? One of the biggest criticisms of Christians is that they are ‘holier than thou.’ What this essentially means is that Christians believe that they are right and others are wrong. The past three years I’ve been realizing that what’s more important than being right is being loving. Even if I have all the right answers, “I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries, but I do not have love, I am nothing.”
