Love Is . . .: Meditations for Couples on I Corinthians 13

By Les and Leslie Parrott

For those who want to grow in the art of loving well Reflections on 1 Corinthians 13 featuring 16 different translations and paraphrases of the Bible's beloved "Love Chapter"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Dec 15, 2009
• ISBN: 9780310859222

Les and Leslie Parrott

#1 New York Times bestselling authors Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott are psychologists and founders of the game-changing online assessments:  SYMBIS.com,  BetterLove.com, and Yada.com.  Their best-selling books include Love Talk, The Good Fight, Crazy Good Sex, and the award-winning Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts. Their work has been featured in the New York Times and USA Today and on CNN, Good Morning America, the Today Show, The View, and Oprah. LesAndLeslie.com

Book preview

This book presented to

_________________________

by

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date

Resources by Les and Leslie Parrott

Books

Becoming Soul Mates

Getting Ready for the Wedding

A Good Friend

Like a Kiss on the Lips

The Marriage Mentor Manual

Questions Couples Ask

Relationships

Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts

Video Curriculum

Mentoring Engaged and Newlywed Couples

Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts

Audio Pages

Relationships

Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts

Books by Les Parrott

Helping the Struggling Adolescent

High-Maintenance Relationships

Love’s Unseen Enemy

Once Upon a Family

7 Secrets of a Healthy Dating Relationship

Also look for the Parrotts’ website at

www.realrelationships.com

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ZONDERVAN

Love is

Copyright © 1999 by Les and Leslie Parrott

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

ePub Edition July 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-85922-2

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Parrott, Les.

  Love is : meditations for couples on I Corinthians 13 / Les and Leslie Parrott.

    p. cm. ,

  ISBN: 0-310-21666-4

  1. Bible. N.T. Corinthians, 1st, XIII—Meditations. 2. Love—Religious aspects—Christianity—Meditations. 3. Spouses—Religious life.

I. Parrott, Leslie L., 1964– . II. Title.

BS2675.6.L6P37   1998

242'.644—dc21

98-44037

CIP

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Translations quoted include: Basic Bible Translation copyright © 1950 by E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.; Berkeley Version copyright © 1958 by Zondervan Publishing House; Cotton Patch Version of Paul’s Epistles copyright © 1968 by Clarence Jordan; Letters to Young Churches by J. B. Phillips copyright © 1947 by The Macmillan Company; The King James Version; The Letters to the Corinthians by William Barclay; The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Publishers; The Message copyright © 1993 by Eugene H. Peterson; New American Bible copyright © 1970 by Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; New International Readers’ Version copyright © 1994, 1996 by International Bible Society; New International Version copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society; Ronald Knox copyright © 1944 by Sheed & Ward, Inc.; Twentieth Century New Testament copyright © 1900 by Fleming H. Revell Company; Wuest’s Expanded Translation of the Greek New Testament © 1958 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. In addition, every effort was made to contact Angela McCord for her permission and to locate publishing information for J. Oswald Sanders.

This edition printed on acid-free paper and meets the American National Standards Institute Z39.48 standard.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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99 00 01 02 03 04 / 1 DC/ 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To J. Paul and Marilyn Turner,

a couple whose commitment

to married love

is matched by their

selfless service to others

Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright

The Most Excellent Way

If I Speak

New International Version

Love Is Patient

King James Version

Love Is Kind

Wuest’s Expanded Translation

Love Does Not Envy

The Message

Love Does Not Boast

Angela McCord

Love Is Not Proud

J. Oswald Sanders

Love Is Not Rude

Berkeley Version

Love Is Not Self-Seeking

Cotton Patch Version

Love Is Not Easily Angered .

Basic Bible Translation

Love Keeps No Record of Wrongs

New American Bible

Love Rejoices with the Truth

Twentieth Century New Testament

Love Always Protects

New International Reader’s Version

Love Always Trusts.

William Barclay

Love Always Hopes

J. B. Phillips

Love Always Perseveres .

Ronald Knox

A Poor Reflection

Living Bible

Afterword

Appendix of Bible Translations

About the Publisher

Share Your Thoughts

The Most

Excellent Way

What is the summum bonum—the supreme good?"

With this question Professor Henry Drummond began his famous lecture The Greatest Thing in the World. The year was 1883 as he stood before a classroom of college students and drove home the question: You have life before you. Once only can you live it. What is the noblest object of desire, the supreme gift to covet?

The rhetorical question required no reply. Everyone knew the answer. Love. Love is the ultimate good. It lifts us outside ourselves. Love sees beyond the normal range of human vision—over walls of resentment and barriers of betrayal. Love rises above the petty demands and conflicts of life and inspires our spirit to transcend who we are tempted to settle for: decent, but merely mediocre. Love aims higher. Unencumbered by self-absorption, love charms us to reach our ideal. Love allures us with a hint of what might be possible. No question about it.

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If there is anything better than to be loved it is loving. Anonymous

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Love is the summum bonum—the most excellent way.

And no words, no passage, no song or poem in all of human history has crystallized the qualities of love into simple absolutes more elegantly than 1 Corinthians 13. The Love Chapter of the Bible paints a perfect picture of love. It reveals the ideal love everyone yearns for. But something about these words, the way they are written, tells us they are meant to be not only admired but also lived. These words are a means to a more excellent way of being.

While the passage