Faith, hope, and love remain, but 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 parts of it. ²⁸ And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, and 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? ³¹ But earnestly desire the greater gifts.

And yet, I am going to show you a far better way.

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.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 from today’s text is one of the most familiar and often quoted portions of scripture. It is even repeated and printed by many secular people. It says: 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. 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. 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. Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. 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, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.   Many times, Christians are criticized for not measuring up to this standard of love. They are called hypocrites because they don’t love as the world says they should.  There are two significant things about the love that is spoken of here that the world doesn’t want to acknowledge.  The first is that this portion of scripture, like everything, should not be taken out of context. It does not stand alone, but rather is part of what Paul is sharing about spiritual gifts. It must be understood then that this love is not human love, but rather it is the love which is given by God.  1 John 4:19 says: We love, because He first loved us.  Our ability to love and our capacity to love is derived from God’s love for us. Romans 5:8 says: God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  So, our love then, is a response to the cross. It is not an emotion or a feeling, but rather it is a spiritual gift given by God, in response to God.

That brings us to the second thing the world does not like to acknowledge about the love of 1 Corinthians 13. Because it is spiritual love, given by the Holy Spirit, it is also based in truth, because the Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of Truth. Look again at some of the things love does and doesn’t do: 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, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth…  Returning to the idea that the world calls Christians hypocrites because they do not love as the world says they should, because they do not embrace sin. Romans 12:9 says: Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.In John 14:15 Jesus says: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”  Because love is given by God, in response to His love, true love must also align with His will and His ways. It says love does not keep an account of a wrong suffered.  The world, our culture and society thrives on keeping account of wrongs suffered. There are many who look for reasons to be offended. The problem is that often what offends them most are righteousness and truth.  Love does not seek its own benefit.  The world twists and distorts the truth, to suit their agenda, for their benefit. They hate the truth because they love unrighteousness. It is said that truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth. In Isaiah 5:20 God says: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!   The truth is we would be hypocrites if we tolerate, accept, embrace or participate in what God calls evil and darkness. It would go against the very foundation of love, that Christ died to redeem us from sin, if we embraced the very things He died to redeem us from.

The text says: 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. For we know in part and prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. 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, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.  Again, love is spiritual, just like the other gifts mentioned. In John 4:24 Jesus says:  “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The same is true for those who love God and love with Godly love. Love must be done in truth. You could substitute God for the word love and all that it says about love would still be true.  God is patient, God is kind, God does not brag, He is not arrogant. God does not act disgracefully, He does not seek His own benefit; God is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, He does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; God keeps every confidence, He believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. God never fails. The measure of our true love is if we can also replace the word love with ourselves.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit may I love as You love. By the Spirit my I be patient and kind. May I not be jealous; brag, or arrogant. May I not act disgracefully, seek my own benefit. May I not be provoked or keep an account of a wrong suffered. May I not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoice with the truth. May I keep every confidence, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things. Because Love never fails.   Amen.