Love is the very head of religion, and someone who has no head is dead.
—Ambrosiaster

I sometimes find myself in debates about the finer points of theology, and while I don’t mind these debates, I always go into them with a major foregone assumption:

The test of every theological or philosophical system
is how it holds up in situations of crisis—
those times when people are most in need.
No matter how close we think we are
to an accurate understanding of God or the cosmos or the meaning of it all,
no matter how intricate the details or how perfectly the parts all fit together,
if our system doesn’t bring comfort to those in pain,
if it doesn’t show people their infinite value in the eyes of God,
if it doesn’t lift up love as the defining force which governs all things,
then the system is nothing.

Such systems are pretty easy to detect. So often, it’s not even the theology or philosophy itself which gives it away; it’s the tone of the person speaking. When judgment or hatred is in the driver’s seat, the rest all becomes noise, and this is what Paul wants the Corinthians to understand in chapter 13.

Even if they understood every doctrine, even if they fine-tuned every aspect of their worship, it’s all worthless without love. This isn’t to say they shouldn’t concern themselves with the big questions they’ve been asking; they just need to set their priorities in the proper order, and love (not just proper practice or knowledge) should be first on the list. I love the way St. Augustine puts it:

Use your knowledge as a sort of tool to build the edifice of charity, which remains forever, even when “knowledge passes away.” For knowledge which is used to promote love is useful, but in itself and separated from love it turns out to be not only useless but even harmful.

Knowledge for the sake of knowledge,
power for the sake of power,
orthodoxy for the sake of orthodoxy—
they’re all pretty useless.

They only become useful when they’re in the service of love, and we need this reminder today just as much as the Corinthians did then. If we put all of our beliefs and practices to this test, if we graded everything we do in church and community by the rubric of love, would we pass?