In The Word
Read: 1 Corinthians 13
The Excellence of Love
13 If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions to charity, and if I surrender my body so that I may glory, but do not have love, it does me no good.
4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. 5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, 6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 9 For we know in part and prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
Most people have heard I Corinthians 13 quoted even if they don’t belong to a local church body. It is a very popular scripture for weddings. Today, we continue to learn about the gifts of the Spirit, but now we begin to also learn about the fruits of the Spirit. We may only have one gift, but all mature believers should bear His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). The gifts themselves are useless without the love from the Spirit. This love is not the starry-eyed look of the bride and groom at the marriage altar. This love is a love that can only come from God because it is His very character. Agape love is self-sacrificing. God loved the world so much that He sent His only begotten Son to be spit upon, ridiculed, mistreated, and murdered in a gruesome way that we can’t even imagine. This kind of love always wants the best for others. It never seeks its own. It is patient and kind. This love never fails. This love is God (1 John 4:8).
The Lord desires for us to use the gift He has given us in this love. When we truly have His love in us, it flows from us. Don’t act like a child that is only concerned for themselves. Be mature in Christ, stay faithful to the hope within you, and walk in His love every day. We are to abide in faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is His love.