“1 Corinthians 13: 8-10” predates the album full of biblical songs and calls to mind another place and another time.

Track: “1 Corinthians 13: 8-10”
Album: Nothing for Juice (1996)

Most of the songs titled after Bible verses are on a much more recent album, but “1 Corinthians 13: 8-10” is an outlier. John Darnielle commented on it at a live show saying that people were generally uncomfortable with this faith and that it set him apart among people who were in his musical community. That obviously changed down the line, or at least John Darnielle changed how he responded to it. There’s a whole album of these, now.

This one is from 1996 and it’s about a series of verses where the meaning is up for debate. The way I read them, Paul is saying that love is the only thing that will persist at the end of all things. He means a different kind of love, but in the context of the song it’s appropriate that our characters are observing a loving gesture and picturing Warsaw in 1939. In moments of intense danger, in the moments where you are afraid of things, remember they are temporal.

I’ve been to Warsaw a lot and it is a beautiful city, but it’s also very much in touch with history. 1939 was a difficult year for Warsaw, but so were many years that followed it. In this song we hear soldiers coming down a hall, and historically, that never means anything good for Warsaw. I don’t have room to get into it, but there is a section of old Warsaw that they left destroyed as a reminder. One imagines these two making a heart with their hands and they realize what we’re meant to remember and what we stand to lose if we don’t.