When I was perhaps nine or ten I attended Vacation Bible School at the Presbyterian Church. The minister who taught the Bible lesson sent us all home to find out where the text for the day, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, but the greatest of these was charity,” was found. My dad used his concordance, located it in 1 Corinthians 13:13, and I triumphantly took back my answer.
When, in 1953, the Revised Standard Version was published, it became my personal Bible. My adolescent class was studying 1 Corinthians 13. The chart I put together seemed to clarify the attributes of love for my young friends, so much so that one of the girls pasted it on the inside of her closet door.
Love is . . . Love is not . . .
patient envious
kind conceited
rude
provoked
Love . . . Love does not . . .
bears all things insist on its own way
believes all things think evil
hopes all things rejoice in iniquity
endures all things fail
And now abide faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13r
