1 Corinthians 13

The Love Chapter! Why do you think Paul takes a break from speaking about spiritual gifts and sandwiches the now infamous chapter on love between the dissertation on the manifestation of gifts and the exhortation on gifts? Several reasons come to my mind.

First, Paul recognizes the infighting which is taking place at Corinth over the superiority of certain gifts in their minds. He also recognizes that gifts can become very divisive and seeks to diffuse the situation immediately. He also understands that the proper use of these gifts must be grounded in love for a proper handling and implementation. For without love as the foundation and motivation of each gift they can become prostituted and manipulative in human nature. Therefore Paul implores the Corinthians to allow love to be the overriding principle for the use of each gift.

Paul continues in describing more on the superiority of love by giving the fundamental elements of love. In a nutshell Paul reminds the reader that love is not egocentric but rather is other focused. In each of the words/phrases Paul chose to describe love he emphasizes the well being or betterment of the object of the love. Paul helps us to understand that love is more concerned with the wants and needs of the object of love than his/her own desires.

Paul uses a great analogy to help us understand that love is a process by stating that he only now sees and understands partially but one day his seeing and understanding will be clearly developed. Love is a process that should be growing and developing. However, as Paul stated very eloquently, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things for love never ends. The reason it cannot end is that it is the greatest of all things especially as Paul points out, it should be the overarching principle of everything.

So how does this help in the church of the twenty-first century? With love as the foundational element then egocentricity should never be a driving force within the church. As we have discussed before,"It is not about me, but it is all about Thee!" When we come to the point where we are more concerned with allowing others to have there needs met than demanding our own then we have comprehended the joy of love. When we come to the point where we are more concerned with leaving a strong legacy for the kingdom of God than we are of leaving a mark on society for our own sake then we have grasped the joy of love. When we want to base all of our decisions on reaching those who are not yet Christians with the Gospel of Jesus Christ then we have reached the joy of love. In short love reaches out for the betterment of the object of love. Do you love?

Takeaways Reread the last paragraph.