1 Corinthians 13:1-13

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.

“The most dangerous aspect of your relationships is not your weakness, but your delusion of strength. Self-reliance is almost always a component of a bad relationship.” ( Paul Tripp)

Paul’s Answer to Why We Love

1. Priority of Love

1 Corinthians 13:1
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

1 Corinthians 13:2
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,

1 Corinthians 13:2
…and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:3
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

2. Picture of Love

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

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.

3. Permanence of Love

1 Corinthians 13:8
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

1 Corinthians 13:9-10
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

“Now it is quite true that there will probably be no occasion for just or courageous acts in the next world, but there will be every occasion for being the sort of people that we can become only as the result of doing such acts here. The point is not that God will refuse you admission to His eternal world if you have not got certain qualities of character: the point is that if people have not got at least the beginnings of those qualities inside them, then no possible external conditions could make a “Heaven” for them—that is could make them happy with the deep, strong, unshakable kind of happiness God intends for us.” (CS Lewis)

1 Corinthians 13:11
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.

1 Corinthians 13:12
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.

Resources Cited

Articles/Books/Commentaries

Chafin, Kenneth L., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. 1, 2 Corinthians. Vol. 30. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1985.

Lane, Timothy S. and Paul David Tripp. Relationships: A Life Worth Making. New Growth Press. Greensboro, N.C. 2008.

Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. Westwood, NJ., Macmillan Publishing, 1952.

Warren, Rick. Spend Your Life Getting Ready for Eternity. https://pastorrick.com/spend-your-life-getting-ready-for-eternity/