I will show you the most excellent way…love…keeps no record of wrongs. (1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:5)

Tim Goeglein collapsed in his White House office. His secret life of plagiarism had been found out and the guilt and shame were literally crippling.

A couple days after his resignation, Goeglein received a call. His former boss, President George W. Bush, wanted to see him.

Terrified, Goeglein entered the Oval Office, looked President Bush in the eye, and began his groveling apology: “Sir, I owe you…” 

But the President wouldn’t let Goeglein finish his apology. “You’re forgiven,” Bush said.

Goeglein was certain he misunderstood what the President said, so he attempted to apologize twice more until Bush said, “You know, Tim, grace and mercy are real. I have known grace and mercy in my own life and you're forgiven. We can talk about all of that [referring to Goeglein’s plagiarism] or we can talk about the last eight years.”

Throughout this series, we’ve been studying what Paul called “...

I will show you the most excellent way…Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. (1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:4-5) 

To the church in Corinth, Paul promised to show them “the most excellent way” to steward their spiritual and vocational gifts. He then proceeded to launch into the famous “Love Chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13 explaining what Christian love is and what it is not.

Of all the attributes Paul lists, not being “self-seeking” may be the rarest in the modern workplace. We live at a time when the idea of self-sacrifice is viewed as naive at best and career-ending at worst. But self-sacrifice is the way of The Way, Jesus Christ.

In Philippians 2:3-4, Paul says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition…Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

You ca...

I will show you the most excellent way…love…does not boast. (1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:4)

George Washington Carver had captivated the United States Congress. It was January 1921, and Carver was testifying about the dozens of different foods he had learned how to make out of peanuts: ice cream, cereal, pickles—the list went on and on. 

Amused, one congressman asked where Carver learned how to do this. “From a book,” Carver replied. What book? the congressman wanted to know. “The Bible,” Carver said. “I didn’t make these discoveries,” Carver explained. “God has only worked through me to reveal to his children some of his wonderful providence.”

What a terrific example of the “the most excellent way” Paul calls us to at work: without boasting. The NASB translates this passage as saying, “love does not brag.” The NKJV says “love does not parade itself.” Because that is the example we have in Christ, the perfect personification of love.

John 8:53 records a religious leader asking Jesus, “A...

I will show you the most excellent way…love is kind. (1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:4)

If you had to describe Fred Rogers (of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fame) in a single word, it would likely be kindness—a virtue he learned from his father.

According to Fred’s biographer, Maxwell King, Jim Rogers made it a habit to “walk through the rows of manufacturing machines,” in his businesses, “addressing each employee by name, inquiring about their work and about their welfare.” 

Those inquiries helped Jim Rogers discover financial pain in the lives of his employees, which he frequently offered to alleviate. When Jim died, his journal recorded “thousands of ‘loans’ that were never collected.”

The kindness of Fred Rogers’s father led to extraordinary acts of kindness of his own—stories of which have literally filled many books. 

So it should be with us. As we meditate on the kindness of our Heavenly Father, it should lead us to model that same kindness to those we work with as this is part of “...

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, you’re bound to see today’s passage popping up in your social media feeds as a reminder of how God calls us to love our significant others. But the context of this passage was not primarily marital love. Paul was writing about how to steward spiritual and vocational gifts.

After listing out gifts such as teaching, healing, and helping, Paul says this: “And yet I will show you the most excellent way….If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (see 1 Corinthians 12:31 - 13:1). And then, a few verses later, he la...