Whenever I hear this lovely passage, I remember the famous Peanuts cartoon that has Linus and his sister Lucy in fierce debate. Linus is declaring his noble intentions to become a great doctor and rid the world of innumerable diseases and ills. Lucy calmly points out to him that he has never been known as a great lover of either his sister or the rest of humanity. Whereupon, Linus rises up in righteous indignation and declares,

"I love humanity! It’s people I can’t stand."

Too many of us can think of times when we have thought the same thing. Sadly, the same can be said for the church.

Too often, the church halls ring with beautiful words and lofty thoughts that quickly become hollow echoes. There is no more frequent or fervent condemnation of the church than this.

How many times have we listened to a truth-seeker sincerely relate his or her experience with a church that said one thing and did another? From individual hurts to insidious horrors, whenever the church has operated without love, it has wreaked destruction.

As Christians, we have been called to live out our lives in love because without it all the singing, talking and praying in the world are just noisy gongs and clanging cymbals.