Spiritual gifts become beneficial to the community when they are carried in the vessel of love.
1 Corinthians 13 · ESV
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2And 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.
3If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
9For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
11When 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.
12For 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.
13So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
A sick person needs medicine. However, if the timing or method of taking the medicine is wrong, the medicine meant to heal can instead harm the body.
Have you ever tried to help someone or do a good deed, but despite your good intentions, it was misunderstood?
Circle or underline repeated words or expressions that carry important meaning.
The Corinthian church was spiritually very active because of the abundance of spiritual gifts, but instead of building up the community, those gifts became a cause of division. For example, those who spoke in tongues considered themselves more spiritual, while those who did not experienced spiritual inferiority or exclusion. For the Corinthian believers, spiritual gifts had become a source of personal glory and pride rather than a benefit to the community. Therefore, Paul points out the lack of love in the Corinthian church, which emphasized gifts alone. The Corinthian church pursued gifts but lost love.
1 Corinthians 13 is often called the "Love Chapter." Between chapters 12 and 14, where the Corinthians were debating which gift was greater, Paul inserts this chapter on love to show that love is the most excellent way to use spiritual gifts. Paul does not deny spiritual gifts. Rather, he emphasizes that love must be the core motivation and foundation through which gifts operate. No matter how impressive a gift may seem, without love it is merely noise like a clanging cymbal. More essential and valuable than any gift is love.
There will come a time when what we know in part and do in part will disappear. When is that time? (vv. 9–10)
Among faith, hope, and love, which is the greatest? (v. 13)
Spiritual gifts and the things of this world are not eternal. What areas of your life need to be reordered as you prioritize eternal love?
The Corinthian believers were rich in gifts but lacking in love. This became a cause of broken unity within the church. Spiritual gifts are tools for serving and building up believers and the church in this world, but they are not eternal. Love is eternal. When the perfect comes, when we see the Lord face to face, all the partial things we now practice will no longer be needed. More important than gifts is using the gifts each person has received with love for the sake of the church.
Help us remember that prophecy, tongues, and knowledge are not eternal, but love is eternal.
Help us bring life to people and benefit the community through words and actions filled with love.