What if you found yourself in a 1 Kings 3:5 situation? God appears to you and says, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
If you're like me, your answer is easy: SUPERPOWERS! And I don't need to be greedy like Superman either. I'm good with just one superpower. I don't need super strength (Judges 15:14-15) or invincibility (Daniel 3:21-25) or lightning speed (1 Kings 18:45-46). I'd be content with the power of flight (Acts 1:9). Hold on a second. Did I just reference a bunch of Bible verses about superpowers? Yes. Yes I did. Now my request doesn't seem as ridiculous, does it? So what does it take to get these superpowers? Faith. Jesus said in Matthew 17:20 "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." For reference, a mustard seed is 1 to 2 millimeters in diameter.
It seems Paul was well read in the teachings of Jesus since his love chapter appears to be referencing these mountain moving capabilities. And yet from what Paul says here, if he was prompted with “Ask for whatever you want me to give you," his response would be love. Love? Really!?! That's on the same scale as Ma-Ti of the Planeteers who had a ring with "powers of 'Heart' and telepathy to instill caring, passion, and sympathy into the people of the world to care for the planet." Come on! He'd lose in a fight with the worst X-Men ever, Jubilee, who had the power of creating a below average light show. Are you sure you don't want a do-over, Paul?
In short, Paul is saying that love is more important than faith. How can this be? As we've just covered, faith is what produces miracles and miracles are what Jesus used to save us all! Pause for one second. Did you catch the lie in that previous sentence? Jesus' "superpowers" didn't save us from an eternity in hell. Of all the amazing things Jesus did, his single most important act wasn't turning water into wine, feeding the 5000 (and later 4000), healing the sick, raising the dead, walking on water, or calming the storm. Nope! Jesus' most important act was to die on a cross just like tens of thousands of other prisoners of Rome. The difference is that Jesus allowed himself to be crucified because He loved us. He had the superpowers to escape that punishment, but above his power, He loved us so much that he sacrificed Himself for us. So it was not by power, but by love that all people across all time can be saved.
If your main focus when reading the Bible is now looking for your favorite superpower:
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