“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.”

-I Corinthians 13:4 (ESV)

Dr. Karl Menninger, one of the most prominent psychiatrists, has said, “Love is the medicine for our sick old world.” His staff was often told that love was the most powerful things they could give their patients.

Scientists have been analyzing love in the laboratory recently. They have learned that love produces changes in body chemistry. When a male meets a female, the blood level on an amino acid, phenylalanine, leaps to a high equaled only by devouring a pound of chocolate. “People in the throes of love,” says researcher Cathy Lawhon, “call it magic, but human behaviorists attempt to define it scientifically. Theories of how chemistry works range from the biochemical effects of raised phenylalanine levels in the blood during love relationships to synchronous and harmonious personal interactional styles.”

More than 19 centuries ago, in the city of ancient Ephesus, a learned rabbi, turned missionary-preacher by the name of Paul, analyzed the chemistry of love. He mentioned a variety of ingredients which make up the real thing: patience, truthfulness, sacrifice, service, etc.

Let us recall I Corinthians 13:1-3: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

Consider this and you will be in the very presence of the God of love.

Pastor Gideon Gallo is the Administrative Pastor at Gladbrook Global United Methodist Church.