March 3, 2009 1 Corinthians 13

Love is the Greatest Gift ~1 Corinthians 13~
And now I wil lshow you the best way of all. I may speak in different languages of people or even angels. But if I do not have love, I am only a noisy bell or a crashing cymbal. I may have the gift of prophecy. I may understand all the secret things of God and have all knowledge, and I may have faith so great I can move mountains. But even with all these things, if I do not have love, then I am nothing. I may give away everything I have, and I may even give my body as an offering to be burned. But I gain nothign if I do not have love. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. Love is not rude, is not selfish, and does not get upset with others. Love does not count up wrongs that have been done. Love takes no pleasure in evil but rejoices over the truth. Love patiently accepts all things. It always trusts, always hopes, and always endures. Love never ends. There are gifts of prophecy, but they will be ended. There are gifts of speaking in different languages, but those gifts will stop. There is the gift of knowledge, but will come to an end. The reason is that our knowledge and our ability to prophesy are not perfect. But when perfection comes, the things that are not perfect will end. 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 stopped those childish ways. It is the same with us. Now we see a dim reflection, as if we were looking into a mirror, but then we shall see clearly. Now I know only a part, but then I will know fully, as God has known me. So these three things continue forever: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.

Love...Agape...in this passage, Paul speaks about love, about its greatness, about what it is, about what it does. The Corinthian Church had several problems as mentioned in previous chapters...all these things can be avoided, if they had LOVE! In everything we do, we need to have love, otherwise it's nothing...we are nothing. Continuing from the previous chapter about spiritual gifts, the only way we can fully express these gifts is if we have love.

The world today stresses, the current times, the present, the material things, and etc. These things make it harder for us to have the Christian love mentioned in this chapter: agape, unconditional love. Humanly love, affection for each other, will fail sooner or later, but this love, agape, is God's love. The bible strictly mentions that it will never fail, it will never end. No matter how affectionally we love a person or a materialistic thing, that'll all end sooner or later, when Christ comes...then we will know that the only thing we have is agape, which endures forever.