QT 4/10/2025 1 Cor 13:1-5, Demons rage; believers love like Jesus

1 Corinthians 13:1–5 (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;

 

NOTE: Chapter 12 ends a discussion about using your gifts in the body with the words, "… And I will show you a still more excellent way." The more excellent way is not spiritual activity or spiritual phrases, but it is love. What is love? Love is the ultimate expression of our faith. It is how people will recognize the difference in our life. Love is why God created us. Love is why Jesus died for us. Love is a true measure of spirituality, not speaking or works or outward events. Love is a changed character which can only happen through a rebirth in the blood of Jesus Christ.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) — Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

 

You can't fake "born again." A person who has put their faith in Jesus will be different, and increasingly different as they grow in that new faith. That is what matters, our character, not our spiritual gifts. The highest expression of our character is achieved in love for others. Starting in verse 4, Paul shares the implications of a born-again life: patience, kindness, humility, graciousness, thinking of others before self, and content.

 

PONDER:

1. Has Jesus Christ changed my life?
2. Did I start out with a change, but have fallen away and don't experience change any more? Am I growing in my faith? Am I spending time with the savior? Do I read the word every day?

 

PRAYER: Father, love is the goal. Love is the best word to express what Jesus is truly like. Today, it is misused. People who hold love rallies and then commit acts of violence, ravage our communities, because they have lost connection to the head or were never born again. Demon-possessed people roam our land who can't control their rage and only want to hurt others. Father, wake us up as a nation. Bring us to repentance. Help us to know Jesus, to read his word daily, to obey his word completely, and to become more like him.