Love is a really tricky concept to put your finger on, yet we tend to know it when we see it. Here Paul takes a swing at describing authentic Christian love. Not the romantic, mushy-gushy stuff, but the love that is to distinguish the followers of Jesus. When we read this not as a poetic wedding reading but as instruction to be weighed against ourselves the result can be quite challenging.
1 Corinthians 13
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Big Idea: You can have the most miraculous gifts and be the most sacrificial person but without love it all means nothing.
Patient
Kind
Rejoicing in the truth
Protecting
Trusting
Hoping
Persevering
Envious
Boastful
Proud
Rude
Self-seeking
Easily angered
Resentful
Keeping a list of wrongs
Delighting in evil
Whatever you’re fighting about is temporary. Love is eternal. (v. 8-13)
Illustration: God’s love for us
John 3:16 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 5:8 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1 John 4:7–12 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.