1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:3 (NIV 2010)
31b And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Reflection:
By mere definition, for something to be deemed excellent means that it is superlatively better than everything else around it, reserved for only the most extremely awesome of epic things. Paul describes the excellence of love, seen in the excellent work of Christ on the cross. Here is where we find the source of this excellence, whereby everything excellent flows from, reads from, and acts from there. Anything not rooted in this cross-centered life is simply not excellent. Noble and heroic deeds are deemed useless at the cross. We are invited to put down the heroics and nobility for a more excellent way to live and experience life. We are invited to love.

Responding to the Transmission:
Let us continue to strive to walk and live in the most excellent way, uprooting and discarding anything that is not cross-centered in our lives. As we move in response to this invitation to love, we will experience the awesome power of the cross - the power to break down strongholds, the power to rescue, and the power to give life. Let’s pray that we would grow in this most excellent way.