1 Corinthians 13 (A Modern Translation)

To my regular readers: I'll try to have Scene 6 of my verse play up for next Wednesday. For now, this is what I have to offer, an idea I've toyed with for awhile:

(Image: 1 Corinthians 13 from the 4th-century manuscript Codex Vaticanus)

What follows is a satirical rendering of 1 Corinthians 13 (famously known as "the Love Chapter," and often read at weddings--you can read the real version here), as it would be translated if we were making it fit the most irresponsible notions of "love" at large in our culture today. I tried to make it whimsically humorous, but if it's even close to being true of our society, then it might be more sad than funny. 


1 Corinthians 13
  
¹ If I post witty memes that make you smile, even if I don’t have love, I’m still the most interesting person in your Facebook feed. ² If I’m smart enough to win every debate in the comments section, and can do it without love, well, that’s as it should be. ³ If I donate a little bit here and there, and sometimes volunteer for a good cause, even if without love, I still feel better about myself.

⁴ Love is instantaneous; love makes me feel good. It wants the best, claims the best, and, quite simply, is the best. ⁵ Love thirsts for more; it fills the center spotlight; it's quick to stand up for its rights; it keeps score so it can know when the game is up. ⁶ Love embraces even my dark side and never imposes beliefs or rules on me. ⁷ It always permits, always tolerates, always fluctuates, and always keeps the back door open in case I need a way out.

⁸ Love never really commits. So where there are covenants, they will cease; where there are vows, they will be stilled; where there is intentional communication, it will pass away. ⁹ For we only know each other in part and we commit to each other in part, ¹⁰ but after a few years of living together, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I decided that youth is too precious a thing to throw away, and I decided to live like a child forever. ¹² For we can’t really know anyone through and through, not even ourselves; someday, maybe, we’ll be centered and content. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, and who wouldn’t love me then?

¹³ And now these three remain: tolerance, self-actualization, and love. And the most exciting of these is love.