March 22, 2022
Love, Actually: What It Is and What It Isn't
1 Corinthians 13
Laura McCoy
Central Truth
Our every action and every word should be bathed in love.
Key Verse | 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
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.
1 Corinthians 13
The Way of Love
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, 1 13:3 Some manuscripts deliver up my body [to death] that I may boast 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; 2 13:5 Greek irritable and does not count up wrongdoing 6 it 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.
Listen to the Podcast
Listen NowDive Deeper | 1 Corinthians 13
This is Paul's letter to the believers in Corinth who are struggling to apply spiritual gifts appropriately and resist the ungodly practices of the culture (1 Corinthians 12). A lack of love was the root of most Corinthians' problems and divisions, and I would suggest it is the root of many cultural issues today. All of us are gifted in different ways, but what Paul writes is that gifts are meaningless if not done in love. If we use our talent, treasure, and time for our own benefit (self-seeking), we are not helpful to others or glorifying to God (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Paul is not addressing the emotion of love, but rather love that is unconditional in the sense that it does not depend on being loved in return. Those who love in this way give up seeking their own status and satisfaction. They let go of past hurts and stop keeping a record of wrongs. They love the most unlovable of people, even when rejected.
Love is about action and being. Action—how a person lives for the Lord and serves others. Being—abiding in God, who is love, and seeing that love demonstrated in Christ's life. This love in action and being is counter cultural. As believers, we are called to love in such a way that is "patient and kind," "does not envy or boast," "is not arrogant or rude," "does not insist on its own way," "is not irritable or resentful," and "does not rejoice at wrongdoing" (1 Corinthians 13:4-6).
A prevalent teaching today is that love is tolerant of all things and promotes all things. This is not biblical. Believers are not called to turn a blind eye to sin (1 Corinthians 13:6). However, patience, love, and a rejoicing in truth are to mark God's people. Biblical theology is based on God's love for His people and their response. The more we become like Christ, the more we will demonstrate love. Love is at the heart of everything God does and asks us to do (Ephesians 5:2; Leviticus 19:18).
Discussion Questions
1. Do you avenge yourself as soon as you have the opportunity, rather than extend love?
2. What are the hurts that you are hanging on to that prevent you from loving freely?
3. Do you love that difficult person in your life any differently than your closest family member or best friend?
4. What are some action steps you can take to allow God to change your heart toward unlovable people or those who think differently than you?
5. If believers were to love the way Christ loved people, what kind of impact would that have in our culture?