Corinthians 13 for me

Corinthians 13
(My own adaptions)



If I speak with the tongue of a national, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or clanging cymbal.
If I wear the national dress and understand the culture and all forms of etiquette, and if I copy all the mannerisms so that I could pass for a national, after almost becoming a foreigner through living with them all my life, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor, yes every single thing I can call “my own”, and if I spend my energy without reserve, but have not love, I am nothing. Love endures long hours of language and history study, and is kind to those who mocks her lack of understanding of certain difficult phrases, love does not envy those who stayed at home, love does not exalt the culture in which she grew up in, is not proud of associating or living with foreigners. Love does not boast about the way we learned to do it with foreigners, does not seek her own ways, is not easily provoked into telling about the beauty of other “cooler” countries her friends come from, does not think evil of this culture which happens to be her own. Love bears all criticism about the way she learned to do things from the white people, believes all good things about this culture, confidently anticipates “feeling” at home, endures all inconveniences. Love never fails, but where there is cultural anthropology, it will fail, where there is linguistics, it will change. For we know not all of the culture and we minister not to all of the culture. But when Christ is reproduced in this culture, then our inadequacies will be insignificant. When I was in a very large Family home I spoke as an average family kid I understood as an average family kid I thought as an average family kid, but when I had to go win the souls of the natives, I put away average family kid things or almost all. Now we adapt to this culture a little bit awkwardly, but He will live in it intimately, now I speak in limited knowledge, but He will speak to the heart. And now these three remain; further study of this culture, language and history study and love, but the greatest of these is love.