Qualities of the Greatest Gift

I Corinthians 13:1–13
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One ingenious teenager, tired of reading bedtime stories to his little sister, decided to record several of her favorite stories on tape. He told her, “now you can hear your stories anytime you want. Isn’t that great?” She looked at the machine for a moment and then rep … More

Love

This is one of the most noted and best-loved chapters in the entire Bible. At the same time, few chapters have suffered more misinterpretation and misapplication than I Corinthians 13. Divorced from its context, it often becomes a sentimental sermon on Christian brotherhood. It is easy to forget that Paul is still dealing with the Corinthian problems of tongues, divisions, envy, selfishness, lawsuits, impatience, etc. The main evidence of maturity in the Christian life is a growing love for God and for God’s people, as well as a love for lost souls. Paul now proceeds to show us the qualities of love:

It is not easily roused to resentment (v. 4).
It has the idea of being useful (v. 4).
It does not sound its own praises (v. 4).
It is not swelled with pride (v. 4).
It is not easily provoked (v. 5).
It does not keep track of the offenses committed against it (v. 5).
It does not take delight in that which is offensive to God (v. 6).
It rejoices when truth is proclaimed (v. 6).
It covers all things (v. 7).
It will believe well of others unless convinced otherwise (v. 7).
It is always positive and hopeful (v. 7).
It sustains the assaults of an enemy (v. 7).

Unlike many of the spiritual gifts, love will never be unnecessary or eliminated. As a child my speech was undeveloped, my understanding and knowledge incomplete. But when I became a man my speech became subject to His mind, His understanding, and His knowledge, which is complete.

Application

The more I become like Christ, the more love I will show to others.

I Corinthians 13:1-13 (English Standard Version)

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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. 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. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

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More I Corinthians commentaries

Qualities of the Greatest Gift

I Corinthians 13:1–13» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)

Application

I Corinthians 13:1-13 (English Standard Version)

I Corinthians 13:1–13
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)