What's the object?

For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. (1 Cor. 13:9-10 NASB)

Like most Christians who get married, 1 Corinthians 13 was read during my wedding ceremony. The challenge of the passage that without love as the foundation of all that we do, it's all just noise is certainly appropriate for that context. While I was young, the group DC Talk had a song with the reminder that "Love Is a Verb" and I wanted to get more specific about that. Love is a transitive verb, meaning that it must have an object. To hear someone say "I love" is incomplete and leaves us wondering what's coming.

While behaviorists are quick to point out that Christ stating the second commandment as "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt.22:39) has loving ourselves at its core, they clearly haven't sought to understand Christ's teaching. Luke 14:26 records Christ challenging His followers for His rightful place as object of our love. The love due Him is so much higher it must make our love in every other relationship – including not only the most intimate we can have with another human in marriage but also one's own life – seem as though it is hate.

My challenge from this passage is that to be more than just noise, I must love Him foremost and (as Luke 14:27 reminds) count myself a "dead man walking" that I may live through Him and allow His love to pour through me. Right now, I have such a poor understanding, but I have faith in this: face-to-face with my Lord's perfection this partial understanding will be no more.