The Spiritual Gift of Resistance
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 through a lens of resistance
I used this rewrite during this weekend’s online “Lost & Found” worship service with Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. This is my second time joining them; it was lovely and healing. Check them out if you are seeking such a community during these tumultuous times.
I wrote this for people to use, so if you would like to use this, please feel free to use it with attribution. Here is the Google Doc and you can also find it posted on BlueSky, Instagram, and Facebook.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1 If I speak in tongues of human beings and of angels but I don’t have love, I’m a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal.
If we move through an unjust world basking in our privileges, even saying the right things, but we do not resist, our silence to those who suffer is thunderous.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all the mysteries and everything else, and if I have such complete faith that I can move mountains but I don’t have love, I’m nothing.
If we know the ways of dignity, liberation, and belonging, and we believe these dreams can become reality, yet we don’t resist that which says that they can not, we are nothing.
3 If I give away everything that I have and hand over my own body to feel good about what I’ve done but I don’t have love, I receive no benefit whatsoever.
If we offer our resources, risk our security, and barter our guilt for goodness, but we don’t resist the tyranny of saviorism, none of us will experience freedom.
4 Love is patient
Resistance boldly plants seeds of hope in the soil today, knowing that lovers of liberation will rise tomorrow
Love is kind
Resistance embraces the human dignity of all God's created: family, friend, stranger, enemy, self, and other
it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant,
Resistance does not say, “I told you so.”
It doesn’t seek accolades, hoard power, or gatekeep rising voices
5 it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints,
Resistance rejects the idea that oppression is a competition and that liberation is a zero-sum game
6 it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth.
Resistance rages at evil and rejoices in love.
7 Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things.
Resistance never dies.
8 Love never fails.
Resistance surrounds us yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
As for prophecies, they will be brought to an end. As for tongues, they will stop. As for knowledge, it will be brought to an end.
At the end of the day, we are human.
On our best days, we are human.
Even as we follow the Holy One’s call to resistance,
our days will end, and our generation will pass away.
9 We know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, what is partial will be brought to an end.
And yet — though we may not live resistance in the ways that God intends, in the loving and tender embrace of the Creator, and in the new life that comes through Christ, we are told again and again through whispers and wonder, “You are more than enough.”
11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, reason like a child, think like a child. But now that I have become an adult, I’ve put an end to childish things.
In the past, when we turned our faces from God’s call to resistance, we allowed the limitations of cynicism, civility, and practicality to be our guide — no more.
12 Now we see a reflection in a mirror; then we will see face-to-face. Now I know partially, but then I will know completely in the same way that I have been completely known.
Now we see that enduring resistance is not centered on the finite victories of today, but on the infinite fullness that is known when ancestors and descendants also come to know restoration and redemption.
13 Now faith, hope, and love remain—these three things—and the greatest of these is love.
Faith, hope, and love are always present
— grounded in these three things —
resistance is the divine guide on our collective journey toward liberation.