1 Corinthians 13 - True Love
Love certainly is the most excellent way, but make sure you understand what true love is.
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And I will show you a still more excellent way.
1 Corinthians 13 (ESV)
1 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.
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Read previous DIG DEEPER posts on 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 13 Summary
Certainly this passage is beautiful even when it's read on its own, as it often is at weddings and similar occasions. Remember, though, how important context is in helping us truly understand what God is saying in His Word.
Page back through your Bible and just look over the main topics of the first twelve chapters of this book. Most of them are about resolving conflict of some sort. The last verse of chapter 12 really sets the tone for today's passage: and yet I will show you the most excellent way.
In other words, all of the previous advice is really good and helpful, but love is the glue that holds it all together.
Dig Deeper
Be careful with this passage.
Many Christians are currently losing their way because they read that love bears, believes, hopes and endures all things (v7), and so they conclude that ungodly lifestyles ought to be considered acceptable in the name of love.
But it's never loving to give people a false sense of hope and security. Certainly this isn't what Paul means.
You've likely read somewhere before of all the different words the Greek language (the original language of the New Testament) has for 'love.' A brief review will help:
xenía - friendship, hospitality