The Qualities of Love [1 Corinthians 13]
12:30 AM
1 Corinthians 13 is one of best known passages in the Bible on the subject of love. It's read at countless weddings, including my own. But weddings and romance weren't on Paul's mind in this teaching. On his mind was a church full of division, whose focus was on the gifts of the spirit instead of the fruit of the spirit....love.
It dismayed Paul to find the members of the church displaying actions that were far from loving. They were selfish, impatient, quick to take each other to court, and arguing over which spiritual gift was the greatest. And so he begins by stressing that although gifts are indeed important, they are nothing if not used with love. "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 symbol. 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 feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.", (vs. 1-3) Love should always be the motivation for using our gifts. Not out of love for ourselves or our own self importance, but out of love for others. And more importantly, out of love for our Lord.
Paul goes on to give the most beautiful description of what pure and selfless love looks like. "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, it 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." (vs. 4-6) Every day society bombards us with false ideas of what love is. It makes us think that love just happens to us. That we have no control. We've all heard the expression "the heart wants what the heart wants", or heard someone described as "hopelessly in love". But the Bible teaches completely the opposite. Love is a choice we make, something we can control, and the fruit of a spirit filled life.
The fruit of love is what we as believers should always strive for. A true agape love as taught and perfectly exampled by Jesus. I love this definition. "Agape love is a selfless and unconditional commitment to imperfect people. A love for the utterly unworthy, and a love which proceeds from a God who is love. It's a love lavished upon others without a thought of whether they are worthy to receive it or not. It proceeds from the nature of the lover, rather than from any merit in the beloved." (Grace Notes) This is the love that Jesus gave so willingly to us with His sacrificial death on the Cross, and the same love He calls us to reflect.
Verse 13 says, "But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love." Paul ends by saying that yes we are to have faith in the Lord. For Hebrews 11:6 tells us it's needed to please God. "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." And yes we are to have hope. "For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially believers." (1Tim. 4:10) But the greatest of all is love. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love." ( 1 John 4:7-8)
"While we are to live in faith and hope, our most important dwelling place is God's love. Without making His love our ultimate dwelling, we cannot fully live in faith and hope. We should refuse to take a step or a breath without remaining keenly sensitive to the greatest of these, our Father's love."...Dr. Charles Stanley
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