1 Corinthians 13: God's Love inUs
Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:9-10
We all need love. We all want love. It is a basic human desire. Paul took a little-used word - agape - and infused it with new meaning. It signifies the love of God, a love that initiates, that seeks, and that acts for the good of the other.
We will spend 7 days focusing on 13 short verses this week, but if you will learn and inculcate this into your life, it will revolutionize how you live. Learn what God's love is all about and how to live in God's love in a sinful world.
We will spend 7 days focusing on 13 short verses this week, but if you will learn and inculcate this into your life, it will revolutionize how you live. Learn what God's love is all about and how to live in God's love in a sinful world.
If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 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 put aside childish things. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.
Through the Bible Readings: Nehemiah 5-6, Acts 15:1–21, Psalm 83:13–18, Proverbs17:22–23
If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings.
Devotional: Limited Knowledge
There was a reason Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 13. The church was arguing over spiritual gifts and using the display of spectacular giftings as a demonstration of their spirituality. Paul said no, it is not tongues or prophecy or any other gift that displays the Spirit of Christ, but Christlikeness. It is the "more excellent way" of love!
It is ironic, then, that a verse from this passage is ground zero in one of the great arguments over spiritual gifts today. Paul's point about gifts and manifestations was that they were good and useful, but that it was love, it was living in Christlikeness that showed true spirituality. Some have taken today's reference to the coming of the "perfect" (and some other veiled inferences in this passage) to construct a doctrine known as "cessationism," the idea that all so-called "sign-gifts" or miraculous gifts passed away, when "the perfect" came - the perfect Word of God. When the Bible was complete, they say, we no longer needed tongues or prophecy, so they went away.
That simply is not what this verse is saying. The perfect here, is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the perfect and sinless one and it is at his coming that our sin will be banished. Paul's point in this is to promote humility today. I study my sermons and preach them (hopefully) with passion, but in the end, I have to admit that my knowledge is limited. I know only a portion of what there is to know about God. My knowledge has grown, but it is still limited.
One day, when we see Jesus face to face, we will know him fully and all of our partial knowledge, our partial understanding, our partial experience of God will end.
It is ironic, then, that a verse from this passage is ground zero in one of the great arguments over spiritual gifts today. Paul's point about gifts and manifestations was that they were good and useful, but that it was love, it was living in Christlikeness that showed true spirituality. Some have taken today's reference to the coming of the "perfect" (and some other veiled inferences in this passage) to construct a doctrine known as "cessationism," the idea that all so-called "sign-gifts" or miraculous gifts passed away, when "the perfect" came - the perfect Word of God. When the Bible was complete, they say, we no longer needed tongues or prophecy, so they went away.
That simply is not what this verse is saying. The perfect here, is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the perfect and sinless one and it is at his coming that our sin will be banished. Paul's point in this is to promote humility today. I study my sermons and preach them (hopefully) with passion, but in the end, I have to admit that my knowledge is limited. I know only a portion of what there is to know about God. My knowledge has grown, but it is still limited.
One day, when we see Jesus face to face, we will know him fully and all of our partial knowledge, our partial understanding, our partial experience of God will end.
An acquaintance once said, "If we disagree, one of us must be in sin, or both of us." What a harsh and sad view. Having different views on things is not sin, it is life in this world of shadows and partial knowledge. I do not know everything and neither do you. It is our pride that makes us think we know everything, or that we know more than we actually do. And pride is the enemy of unity in the Body of Christ.
It may be that when we see Jesus face to face we will not only realize how partial our knowledge was, but how much importance we placed on things that really do not matter. When things are perfect, the importance of the partial, of the imperfect - it will fade.
It may be that when we see Jesus face to face we will not only realize how partial our knowledge was, but how much importance we placed on things that really do not matter. When things are perfect, the importance of the partial, of the imperfect - it will fade.
Father, help me to keep my eyes on the prize, to focus on the day when I will see you face to face.
Think and Pray:
Do you get wrapped up in unnecessary arguments?
Do you assume knowledge and expertise in areas that you do not have it?
Consider the concept of humility about your own knowledge.
Do you assume knowledge and expertise in areas that you do not have it?
Consider the concept of humility about your own knowledge.
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