Written ~ 08-20-2024
Read 1 Corinthians Chapter Thirteen
1 Corinthians 13
Our chapter for today is famously known as the “Love Chapter,” but it is so much more than that… Let’s dive in!
In chapter 12 we learned about the various gifts the Holy Spirit gives to believers, so as we proceed with chapter 13, we will see Paul referencing the things we read about in chapter 12. It might be a good idea to reread 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, just to remind yourself what was said regarding the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3…
1 “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.”
Here Paul touches on a few of the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives us… the ability to speak in unknown languages, the gift of prophecy and the gift of great faith. These gifts are given to believers to encourage one another in the church, to lift each other up and create unity within the body of Christ. Right away Paul points out that even if you have these wonderful abilities from the Holy Spirit, but you are conducting yourself in a way that does not show love, everything you are trying to do will be worthless. This is difficult! We all have a sinful nature that wants to rear its ugly head! We can be exercising our gifts in a godly environment, but the very basis to every single one of the Holy Spirit’s gifts is love. We must have the type of the love that Jesus demonstrated while He was walking on this earth. If we have God’s love flowing through us but we are unable to convey that love to our fellow believers, how can we expect to have much of an impact with the gifts the Holy Spirit wants to give us. Love is the key component.
Let’s look at the dictionary’s definition of love:
- strong affection for another, arising out of kinship or personal ties
- affection based on admiration, benevolence (an act of kindness), or common interests
- warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion
- unselfish loyalty and concern for the good of another
Now, let’s look at our chapter, I’m pretty certain most of us have read this portion of Scripture in one way or another…
1 Corinthians 13:4-7…
- Love is patient and kind.
- Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
- Love does not demand its own way.
- Love is not irritable.
- Love keeps no record of being wronged.
- Love does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
- Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Patience and Kindness ~ A lot of us fail at the very first Godly meaning of love! We have to show patience to imperfect people. We ALL make mistakes, but we cannot lose control of our patience just because we can’t take the other person’s imperfection any longer. If we do, we need to take a hard look at ourselves in the mirror and seek repentance.
Dictionary definition of Patience:
- Bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint
- Manifesting forbearance (the quality of being forbearing = leniency) under provocation or strain
- Not hasty or impetuous (marked by force and violence of movement or action)
- Steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity
I think most of us know what it means to be patient with one another, but we all can have difficulty with it at one time or another. I don’t think Paul is mistaken when he combines patience with kindness, it’s not just about being patient, we are also to be kind to that person while we are using restraint, so our impatience does not emerge. Love is patient and kind.
Jealousy, Boastfulness, Pride and Rudeness ~ It’s easy to see why these few things do not equate to a loving behavior. When we are jealous or envious of each other it creates a hostile environment, a negative type of competitiveness has no place in the body of Christ, or anywhere for that matter. Boastfulness and Pride bring with it an arrogance that cannot be joined with a loving spirit. Boasting is defined as praising oneself extravagantly in speech, to speak of oneself with excessive pride. Pride is defined as blatantly and disdainfully displaying excessive self-esteem, having or showing an attitude of superiority and contempt for people or things perceived to be inferior. And Rudeness! What are some synonyms to rudeness? The act of being inconsiderate, disrespectful, impolite, ungracious and lacking a sense of courtesy. Whew! Even though it may be easy to see why any one of those attributes are not displaying a loving spirit, each of us can stumble and fall over our own selfishness from time to time. We need to be mindful of our attitudes! We need to check ourselves constantly to make sure not one of those things becomes a part of our attitudes towards others.
Love does not demand its own way ~ Love is unselfish… Now it does not mean you must be a push-over or a door mat, there must be a cordial agreement coming from a loving place when working alongside someone else. This can be within the church environment; it can be within your home. When you think of the word demand, what does it make you think of first? Maybe an authoritative figure barking out commands with no respect for the other person? Maybe a husband creating an atmosphere where his needs are the only thing that matters. Having a demanding personality often comes with ultimatums, there is always an adverse outcome when those demands are not met. When you have one person insisting that their rights are the only thing that matter, it creates a very unbalanced relationship. I can’t imagine what a situation would look like if you had two people demanding their own way, nothing would ever get resolved. Selfish love, demanding love, is not love.
Love is not irritable ~ Oh boy there are tons of synonyms for the word irritable! Have you ever gotten irritated at someone? A co-worker? A spouse? A friend? A driver in another lane? Have you ever had unanswered prayer and gotten irritated with God? What about being inconvenienced in any way? Look at the list of words associated with the word irritable: grouchy, snippety, testy, hostile, crabby, touchy, crotchety, grumpy, prickly, snappy, cranky, snarky and short-tempered. These words should have no place in the believer’s vocabulary. Jesus has given us everything, He gave up His life for us and is right now waiting to bring us home to a heavenly paradise! If we are in a constant state of irritability, we must get a handle on that behavior. Whatever the source of that irritability, it needs to be taken care of! But first, we have to look within ourselves! What is our expectation? Do we place such a heightened level of standard that no one could possibly reach it? Humbling ourselves before our Heavenly Father is the key to this attitude. Love is not irritable.
Love keeps no record of being wronged ~ Simply put, when someone does anything to hurt us, maybe they spread rumors, or placed an unfair judgment on us. We are not to retaliate. Keeping no record of being wronged is by not holding grudges, it is complete forgiveness, even when someone has wronged us dreadfully! Maybe someone has done something that you don’t agree with, whatever the case, if you decide to hold that injustice over their heads, this my friends is considered keeping record of wrongs. To exercise the love that is mentioned in this chapter, we must erase all resentments. Love does not hold grudges.
Love does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out ~ Guess what this entails? Gossip, the spreading of rumors. Are you a person who loves listening to gossip? Maybe you stand around the “water cooler” and gossip endlessly about a coworker, others join in the laughter and poking fun at the expense of another person. Do you spread rumors? Do you have family members that are always at the brunt end of jokes or criticisms? Instead of defending that person are you laughing along with the jokes? No, love does not gossip or spread rumors, it does not laugh at someone else’s expense. What we should rejoice in is finding out the truth! Whatever the joke is, or whatever the rumor is, or whatever the gossip is, love finds out the truth and rejoices when the person who has always been the target of those rumors is honored. Let’s get something straight, even if the rumor or the gossip is based on something true, that does not give us the right to spread someone else’s business around to other people. Love rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance ~ In the Spirit Filled Life Bible it says… Love bears all things, it never gives up, it defends people and holds other people up. Love believes the best about others, doesn’t lose faith in them, credits them with good intentions, and is not suspicious. Love is hopeful in all things, never gives up on people, but affirms and validates their future. Love endures all things, perseveres in everything and remains loyal to the very end.
1 Corinthians 13:8-10…
8 “Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.”
Love is what lasts. Because God is love, we will continue to love when we get to Heaven. Everything else we know will disappear! Even the gifts the Holy Spirit gives us will no longer be necessary once we get to Heaven, because His gifts benefit us now while we are still on earth.
Prophecy, speaking in unknown languages and having special knowledge is given to us to help us unlock the mysteries of God while we minister to each other. Even though the Holy Spirit will reveal the Scriptures to us in wonderous ways, that knowledge still won’t be complete. Once we get to Heaven, every partial and incomplete thing we have learned will become perfect. We will no longer need the prophetic word, because Jesus will be standing right there before us! We can ask Him ourselves!
1 Corinthians 13:9-12…
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul talked about how when we are infants in Christ, we can only handle the “milk” of knowledge. As we study the Scriptures and learn from the Holy Spirit, we should be able to have the “solid food” of knowledge. We grow, we mature, we continue to learn, but with more understanding, with more wisdom and with more knowledge. Verse 13:11 says, “…When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child (“milk” knowledge). But when I grew up (“solid food” knowledge), I put away childish things.”
As we continue to grow in our knowledge of the Scriptures, we will never come to the end of gaining knowledge. It’s impossible because the knowledge of God is infinite. It will not be until we get to Heaven that all that knowledge we strive for will be complete. Does that mean we give up because there is no way to know it all? Absolutely not! Gaining wisdom and knowledge from the Word of God is the only way we can successfully go through this life on earth! To be able to conquer every single item on the “Love Is..” list, we must be in the Scriptures every single day. We must develop the type of love that God has poured out on us, the only way to do that is to grow, to learn and to ask the Holy Spirit for help.
Even though we have an incomplete knowledge while we are still on this earth…
1 Corinthians 13:13 says…
13 Three things will last forever — faith, hope, and love — and the greatest of these is love.
~AMEN~
For added reading, here are the verses 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 in the Amplified Version (AMP) and The Message Version (MSG) of the Bible…
~ AMP ~
4 Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. 5 It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. 7 Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening].
~ MSG ~
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.