Janita Krayniak

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul writes a letter to a church that is warring amongst themselves. In this letter, we find chapter 13 often referred to as the “Love Passage.” From the Common English Bible translation, here is what Paul is saying to the church in Corinth, in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a:

“Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth. Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” 

So I got to thinking about what it would mean to rewrite this using “hate” instead of “love.”

Hate is not patient, hate is not kind, it is jealous, it brags, it is arrogant, it is rude, it seeks its own advantage, it is irritable, it keeps a record of complaints, it is happy with injustice, but it is unhappy with the truth. Hate does not put up with all things, it distrusts all things, hate has no hope or endurance. Hate always fails. 

But does hate always fail? It should, but it sure feels like hate is winning these days. The events of the past few weeks have shown that if nothing else, humanity has a firm understanding of what hate is, but do we have an understanding of what hate is not?  Holocaust survivor, author and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel once said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” 

Wiesel’s words remind us that while hate is a passionate and destructive emotional response, indifference, which is marked by an utter lack of care or concern, is a far greater evil. Indifference allows suffering to exist unchallenged. This might have been better summed up by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey in the wake of the recent Catholic school shooting, who said: “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.”  

In the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Where do we go from here — Chaos or Community?”  

If the opposite of hate is indifference, then what are we going to DO to get us back to what truly matters? Are we going to dive deeper into chaos, or will we move toward community? If we are to get back to what matters, what might that be? The answer has always been love. Going back to that letter from Paul to the church in Corinth, perhaps it is just as much of a reminder to our church today as it was to the church in Corinth all those centuries ago? 

“Now faith, hope, and love remain — these three things — and the greatest of these is love,” says 1 Corinthians 13:13.

We can no longer be silent, which is the same as indifference; we must speak out, and we must speak love to all of our neighbors.  

(Janita Krayniak is the pastor at United Church of Powell.)