Love According to 1 Corinthians 13
2 And if I were to have the gift of prophecy with a profound understanding of God’s hidden secrets, and if I possessed unending supernatural knowledge, and if I had the greatest gift of faith that could move mountains, but have never learned to love, then I am nothing.
3 And if I were to be so generous as to give away everything I owned to feed the poor, and to offer my body to be burned as a martyr, without the pure motive of love, I would gain nothing of value.
God never condemns us in pursuing gifts of speaking in tongues, prophecy words of knowledge, or faith, but gifts received and functioning through necessity or obligation rather than love will pollute the gift’s effectiveness and will be limited due to lack of character.”
* Here is how love is demonstrated through these gifts:
2) Prophecy – understand the mysteries of God so we can reveal and prove the love of God to someone who desperately needs it!
3) Knowledge – to discern certain hidden areas in people’s live so you can minister to and pray for them!
4) Faith – not to just move mountains for ourselves, but for someone else, considering their needs as greater than ours!
* Generosity and martyrdom can be done outside of love and out of religious obligation when it is not to demonstrate and express the love of God, but to be admonished by people with their boastings or even recordings!
* No one will every act, believe or engage this way if they see themselves through the lens of God’s love, grace and mercy!
We can only love our neighbor as ourselves when we truly love ourselves!
1 Corinthians 13:8-13 (TPT) says, “8 Love never stops loving. It extends beyond the gift of prophecy, which eventually fades away. It is more enduring than tongues, which will one day fall silent. Love remains long after words of knowledge are forgotten. 9 Our present knowledge and our prophecies are but partial, 10 but when love’s perfection arrives, the partial will fade away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke about childish matters, for I saw things like a child and reasoned like a child. But the day came when I matured, and I set aside my childish ways.
12 For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face. My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me has been fully understood. 13 Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.”
* Tongues and prophecy are necessary now, but one day will not be so when we have eternity to tap into and know the unending mysteries of God!
* People manipulate this scripture to say tongues has been done away with, but what about prophecy and knowledge? Are all Christian believers ignorant without knowledge? Is not the testimony of Jesus the spirit of prophecy?
* No one has to be gifted to be perfected in love! This is revealed through closeness to Jesus!
* We can have childlike wonder without having childlike mannerisms!
* We cannot fret over lack of understanding because eternity will fix that, but we only have this lifetime to mend broken areas of love. We must learn to love and grow in it now!
* The greatest is love, which means that should be our mission to love God, family and neighbor with the love we have experienced of and from Him!