January 30, 2017 (Monday)
A beloved chapter of the Bible is 1 Corinthians 13, commonly called, “The Love Chapter.” Most of us can easily recall the final verse of that chapter: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV). Let’s take a look at the teachings of this marvelous chapter of the Bible.
Love is necessary (vv 1-3); without it, we cannot possibly serve God. Without love, our worship is an irritant to God (vs 1). Without love, all our preaching is empty (vs 2). Without love, our knowledge is vain (vs 3). Without love, our faith is futile (vs 2). Without love, our acts of mercy bring no reward (vs 3). Without love, even self-sacrifice is meaningless (vs 3).
Love is patient and kind (vs 4). It is willing to wait for answers to prayer and improvement of behavior in others, remembering that “Jesus went about doing good” (Acts 10:38).
Love is not self-centered (vv 4-6). Love is not jealous (vs 4). Love is not proud (vs 4). Love is not rude (vs 5). Love is not self-seeking (vs 5); it is not selfish. Love is not irritable (vs 5). Love is not vindictive; it keeps no record of wrongs. Love says “forget it” and means it (vs 5). Love does not delight in evil (vs 6).
Love is victorious. Love rejoices in the truth (vs 6). Love always protects (vs 7). Love always trusts (vs 7). Love always hopes (vs 7); it is optimistic. Love always perseveres; it keeps going and never gives up (vs 7).
Love is permanent (vv 8-13). It never runs out. There’s always more. Everything else will pass away, but love remains. Spiritual gifts are partial, incomplete, and transient; love is firmly fixed and will not be replaced. (vv 8-9). Love is perfect in every way (vv 10-13). Just as the child disappears and is replaced with the adult, so love does away with spiritual immaturity (vv 10-13).
Love is greater than anything, even faith and hope (vs 13).
God in Christ on the Cross is saying to us, “You cannot hurt me enough to make me stop loving you.” Let us allow love to have its way with us.
1 Corinthians 13
New International Version (NIV)
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.