Tuesday; September 21
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 43rd Sonnet contains one of the most familiar phrases in English Literature. As she evaluated the presence of love, she wrote, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”. There is no telling how many times this poem has been used to profess one person’s love to another nor how many times the phrase has been used to begin a general discussion of love. Interestingly, the Bible has something in common with Browning. You see, it too asks – then answers – the question, “How do I love thee?”. There are many places that describe love, but I came across a rather unusual one the other day. The Apostle Paul may be best known for his description of love in I Corinthians 13, but in his letter to the church in Ephesus, he observed, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:31