Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable. It keeps no record of wrongs. It does not rejoice in injustice but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, trusts all things, hopes for all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, translation my own)
Getting Our Terms Straight
My group of friends once asked Todd to bring "a mix" for our road trip. He showed up with trail mix—cashews and raisins—while we were expecting a playlist. Simple miscommunication, but it highlights something crucial: definitions matter.
When we say "God is love," we're making a pretty big theological claim. But what does that actually mean? If love can mean anything—if it can somehow encompass violence, exclusion, or harm—then we might as well say it means nothing. The word becomes empty, a spiritual platitude that justifies whatever we want it to.
Fortunately, Scripture doesn't leave us guessing.
Read Next
Read It Like You're Free Day 20: The Trajectory of Grace
A child shall not suffer for the iniquity of a parent, nor a parent suffer for the iniquity of a child. The righteousness of the righteous shall be their own, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be their own. —Ezekiel 18:20
The TV Cart
In third grade at
Misused Scripture: 1 Corinthians 11:27, "Eating and Drinking in an Unworthy Manner"
This passage isn't about God punishing you for taking communion wrong. It's about what happens when the wealthy eat and the poor go hungry.
Read It Like You're Free Day 19: I Want To Hold Your Ham
Certain ideas get so deeply embedded in the tradition—repeated so often, sung so confidently—that no one stops to ask whether the original actually says what we think it says.
The Perch - March 2026
This week: why Paul would kick someone out of church, the chaos monster hiding in your Bible, and what to call a group of TSA agents.
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I write about the Bible, books, and what it means to be human — with a bias toward love and liberation. Free subscribers get two emails a week. Paid subscribers get a third, plus access to everything on the site.
