Which Is Greatest?

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spockrates

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Which is the greater virtue - love or wisdom?

I mean, we have this passage:

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

(1 Corinthians 13:13)

So, we can say love is greater than faith and hope, but what about wisdom?
 
Lee1 said:
Perhaps Love gives insight necessary for true wisdom.
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Hmmm. I’m thinking love feels and love does, but wisdom understands. So, isn’t it wisdom that gives insight for true love? 🙂
 
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Love gives the compassion necessary for true understanding, without love wisdom is dull.
 
hergratefulchild said:
it is given out of love, he created wisdom.
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Did God create wisdom, or is he wisdom? I mean, when I think of God, omniscience comes to mind. The one who knows all is the source of all wisdom. Just as he is love, so too he is wisdom. Right? Or am I saying something unwise?
 
yes he is Wisdom and that is what I was going to reply… but he is not only wisdom and that is why I rephrased it 🙂
 
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Lee1 said:
Love gives the compassion necessary for true understanding, without love wisdom is dull.
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Not sure I understand, but I hope you can enlighten me! Why is compassion necessary for true understanding? Or maybe, can you give me a simple example of something that is impossible to understand apart from compassion?
 
hergratefulchild said:
yes he is Wisdom and that is what I was going to reply… but he is not only wisdom and that is why I rephrased it 🙂
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Yeah, yeah! So, it makes me wonder: Is any one attribute of God less important or valuable than any other attribute of God?
 
If you look around what do you see? A world lacking in wisdom or a world lacking in love?
Would our world be better if we were all wise? Yes but cold.
Would our world be better if we all truly loved our neighbour? Yes and warm.

We could be wise to keep our harvest to ourselves to safeguard our survival through winter but how would we feel living alone next spring?
If we share our harvest with love we at least gain merit with God, which is priceless.
 
It seems to me that St. Paul is speaking to an audience that is quite the opposite of many here. I mean, both the Romans and the Jewish people were convinced that wisdom was supreme, the greatest of all virtues. Isn’t Paul trying to reason with these folks and convince them that love is great, too?
 
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Lee1 said:
To truly understand me you would have to employ compassion.
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When you say compassion, do you mean empathy? In other words, are you saying that to truly understand how you feel, I’d have to empathize with you?
 
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Not just empathy but you would have to have compassion to understand me, love would give empathy and compassion and believe me I would need both those from you if you were to ‘get’ me.
 
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