The following is from Clement of Rome, early Church Father. It comes from his Letter to the Corinthians and was written around AD 96.
Who can describe the bond of God’s love? What human being can rightly tell the excellence of its beauty? The height to which love exalts us is beyond our speech. Love unites us with God. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love bears all things. Love is longsuffering in all things. There is nothing corrupt or arrogant in love. Love allows no schisms, and gives rise to no seditions, but does all things in harmony. Love is what makes all the elect of God perfect. Without love, nothing is well-pleasing to God. In love the Lord has taken us to Himself. It was because of His love for us that Jesus Christ our Lord gave His blood for us by the will of God, His flesh for our flesh, His soul for our souls. You see, my beloved, how great and wonderful a thing is love! No-one can declare its perfection. Who can find anyone who is fit to dwell in love, except those to whom God has granted such fitness? Let us therefore pray, and beg of God’s mercy, that we may live blameless in love, free from all human parties that prefer one person above another.
