Love Makes All the Difference
1 Corinthians 14:1 (ESV)
“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.”
1 Corinthians 12:31 (NIV)
“And yet I will show you the most excellent way.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NIV)
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
Love Makes All the Difference
1 Corinthians 13:1 (NIV)
“If I speak in the tongues of men (earthly) or of angels (heavenly), but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”
1. Without love, our words push people away.
2. Without love, our spiritual knowledge and mysteries inflates.
1 Corinthians 13:2 (NIV)
“If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge...but do not have love, I am nothing.”
1 Corinthians 8:1 (NIV)
“We know that ‘We all possess knowledge.’ But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.”
3. Without love, our faith is dead.
1 Corinthians 13:2 (NIV)
“If I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”
4. Without love, giving is selfish.
1 Corinthians 13:3 (NIV)
“If I give all I possess to the poor...but do not have love, I gain nothing.
“You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving.” - Amy Carmichael, Missionary in India
5. Without love, noble sacrifice is self-serving.
1 Corinthians 13:3 (NIV)
“...Give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
Colossians 3:14 (ESV)
“Above all these put on love.”
What does love look like?
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”
1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV)
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
