If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13
Christ’s Love Described and Defined
A. The Necessity of Love: 1 Cor. 13:1-3
1. Gifts without love are self-serving and Christ distracting: 1 Cor. 13:1
2. Works and ministry without love are worthless and fruitless: 1 Cor. 13:3
B. The Qualities in Love: 1 Cor. 13:4-7
1. God’s love manifested in patience toward us: Matt. 18:21-35
– His handling of forgetful sheep: Ps. 106:6-13; 40-46
– His handling of impulsive sheep: John 13:6-10
– His handling of slow to learn sheep: Luke 24:25-27
– His handling of fearful sheep: Mark 4:35-40
– His handling of failing sheep: John 21:15-19
2. God’s love developing patience in us: Signs of His work
– Presence of the Fruit of the Spirit: Gal. 5:22-23
– Submission to God’s mysterious providence: Hab. 3:17-19
– Contributing to a unified body of believers: Eph. 4:1-3
– Quickness to reconcile and forgive: Col. 3:12-14
– Earnestness in loving and serving God’s people: Heb. 6:9-11