What if love isn’t sentimental—but structural? In this episode, I explore Paul’s “more excellent way” in 1 Corinthians 13 as a high mountain pass—the narrow, risky, breathtaking road of transformation. Love, it turns out, isn’t comfort; it’s ascent. It’s the way that changes the air you breathe.
The Episode
Love is the most overused word in our world—and the least understood.Paul’s words, “I will show you a more excellent way,” aren’t about feelings. They’re an invitation up the mountain, a call to the “beyond-measure path” where beauty, risk, and endurance meet.
In this reflection, we trace:
* Faith, Hope, and Love as the architecture of existence—the divine geometry that orders our being.
* Tolkien’s “eucatastrophe” and why hope is the structure of time itself, bending us toward reunion.
* Paul’s “hyperbolic way,” as the noble path that elevates and refines.
* Why our culture’s definition of love—mere affirmation—falls short and can lead to isolation.
* How true love carries the grit, endurance, and thin-air beauty of a mountain pass.
“Love is the mountain pass. Love is the “way beyond measure.” Love is the geometry of God’s own heart.”
This isn’t a how-to on relationships. It’s a pilgrimage—a way of seeing again.When Paul speaks of love, he’s describing the very curve of divine being: a love that ascends, stretches, and never stops reaching.
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Word Study: Hyperbolē Hodos — The Surpassing Way
Paul’s phrase in 1 Corinthians 12:31, “a more excellent way,” comes from two Greek words:
ὑπερβολή (hyperbolē) — literally “a throwing beyond.”Later used for what is surpassingly great, beyond measure, even a mountain pass.
ὁδός (hodos) — a road, journey, or way of life.In the New Testament, it becomes a name for the Christian life itself (Acts 9:2; 19:9). Also, Jesus refers to himself as “the way.” And the writer of Hebrews writes about a “new and living way.” The repetition invites us to look deeper.
Together, hyperbolē and hodos give us a breathtaking picture:
Love is not a static virtue; it’s the high mountain pass of the soul.It’s the surpassing way—demanding, ascending, yet leading toward light.
This is the geometry of love: Alignment with the Good that reorders the self.Love is not a shortcut to ease and affirmation but the formation of our days—our way of being with God and one another that transforms everything it touches.
From the TBD Library:
* The Anxious Generation — Jonathan Haidt
* The Four Loves — C.S. Lewis
* On Faerie Stories — J.R.R. Tolkien
* 1 Corinthians 12–13 — Paul’s “more excellent way”
* AI, Gravitational Time Dilation, and Learning to Love Life - The Podcast of Blaine Eldredge
Coming Next Week
We’ll go deeper into Paul’s words—“Without love, I am nothing”—and explore how a world without love becomes hollowed of meaning. Actions lose weight. Speech loses Logos. Until then, stay rooted in light.
