QT 4/11/2025 1 Cor 13:6-13, Learning to love is more important than just about anything else

1 Corinthians 13:6–13 (ESV) —

6 it (love) does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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 gave up childish ways. 12 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.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

 

NOTE: There are many ways people have chosen to interpret verses 9-11, I think the simplest is that as we mature in Christ and ultimately are transformed by Jesus, love will remain, and all these other things will disappear. We will know the truth, we won't have to teach it. We will know God, we won't have to encourage people to get into the word to know God. Therefore, while I am encouraged to use my gift now to build up the church, I should be even more energized to love people, a far greater goal that will last into eternity. How? That part, I don't know. In fact, I really don't know how I will be changed. I do know that the inner man is corrupted by sin, and that our new body will not have that corruption. Technically, I won't even be tempted to sin in my new body. I heard someone call it "creature holiness." As the passage, now I know in part, then I shall know fully. I look forward to that day, but until that day, the emphasis should be on faith, hope, and love, with love being the most important.

 

PONDER:

1. Do you love or do you ignore that which is too hard to love?
2. Are you more concerned how people see you using your spiritual gifts or that people (and God) see you as loving?

 

PRAYER: Father, my struggle is that I ignore that which I struggle to love. Some people are easy to love, others are much harder. In the latter case, it is easier to ignore them then to learn to love them. Forgive me, I know that is wrong. Open my eyes to my lack of love. Help me to see how I can love better. Help me to use these days to see the need to love and be able to grow in my ability to love.