The greatest of these is love

1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. ²⁸ And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.²⁹ All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? ³⁰ All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? But earnestly desire the greater gifts.

And I show you a still more excellent way.

The Excellence of Love

13 If I speak with the tongues of men 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 all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵ does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷ bears all things, 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; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part; ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 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, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

This portion of scripture, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, is one of the most often read, quoted and reprinted portions of scripture in all of the Bible. It is used, read, quoted and reprinted by both Christians and non Christians alike. What is lost by many though who read, quote or reprint this description of love is the context in which it is shared. Paul is continuing to speak about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and their application in our lives. The world will often take these verses out of context to try to tell Christians what love should look like. 1 Corinthians 2:14 establishes that:  A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.   What Paul describes; the quality and character of love, is not an emotion, a feeling or even a human quality. It is Holy Spirit given. 1 John 4:19 says:  We love, because He first loved us.  Our ability and our capacity to love is based in God’s love for us. Romans 5:8 says:  God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Anyone who does not know and has not accepted the love of God demonstrated in the cross, cannot fully comprehend the love Paul is speaking about. A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. 

Look then at what God’s love manifested through the Holy Spirit looks like: Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.   All these qualities that Paul uses to describe love are also qualities of the character of God and Christ. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one. You could say:  God is patient, God is kind and is not jealous; God does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; God does not seek His own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. God never fails. 

Human love, based in emotions and feelings; affected by physical conditions both good and bad, cannot compare to the quality and character of Godly love manifested through the Holy Spirit. When it says:  it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, what better example or demonstration of love could there be than Jesus, who prayed in the garden saying: “Not My will but Your will be done,” who was not provoked to anger and retaliation when arrested, though He said: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”  Who on the cross, in the midst of His suffering and shame, enduring the greatest wrong, said: “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.”  The world says love is tolerance and inclusion; that to love we must celebrate whatever people choose. True love: does not act unbecomingly; does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. Truth, like love, is a Spiritual quality that can only be fully understood through the Spirit. Truth is not relative and subjective, as the world tries to make it. The world is often offended by the truth, but it is because they are also offended by the demonstration of God’s love, the sacrifice of His Son on the cross.

The text ends saying:  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. 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. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.   Human love is well represented by the love of a child. It is the opposite of true Godly love; driven by emotion and physical responses; selfish and self seeking. There is no doubt that a child deeply loves their mother, but when that child matures and no longer requires the mother to satisfy and meet their needs, that is when true love is known and seen. Faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.  Love is the greatest in part because it is the foundation of our faith and hope. Without the love of God demonstrated in the cross, we would have no hope or nothing to have faith in. Because of love, because as it says in John 3:16: God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  Because of love, by faith we have life.

Thank You heavenly Father; Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit for the gift of love, the foundation of life. So that I may know love better, may I know You more. So that I may know You more, may I love You more. May my love become like the one who is mature and not like a child. May I love because You first loved me.  Amen.